Lock & Key Party + Speed Dating in Central London @ The Refinery | 30s-40s

Original Dating are bringing their Lock & Key Party to The Otherist on Saturday 5 December, a night that combines speed dating with a bit of a game. It's their signature offline mixer, and they usually draw more than 180 singles of a similar age with a balanced male-female ratio, so you're not walking into a room of twenty people and hoping for the best.

The night starts with a speed dating session: short dates run to a bell, so you meet everyone in the room without having to work the crowd yourself. Once that's wrapped up, the locks and keys come out. Every woman is given a padlock and every man a key, and the aim is to find the one that fits. It's a simple enough icebreaker that lets you spend more time with the people you actually liked during the speed dating, and it does the heavy lifting of starting conversations for you. Matches can win prizes on the night, and the following day the organiser's website lists everyone who attended and reveals the mutual matches.

This London edition is aimed at people in their early thirties to mid-forties, so you'll be in a room with people in a similar stage of life. It's a bit more structured than a standard singles night, which takes some of the pressure off if you're not one for the chat-up line approach. A guest who attended a similar Original Dating party in London back in February described it as a well-organised event with a lovely atmosphere.

It's on Saturday 5 December at The Otherist, 111 Old Broad Street, EC2N 1AP, in the City. The night starts at 7pm, with doors open half an hour before, and tickets start from £21.00.