Great places to meet new people

If you have moved to a new area in Britain, making friends will be a priority. Your workplace is a good place to meet people and you might be able to make friends among your neighbours too. However, there are also other good ways to make friends. Joining a group that meets regularly can be the best way. Your local council website will often have a list of clubs or groups in your area. You could also search on Facebook, or look on noticeboards in your supermarket or library.

Some good places to meet new people are:

• Exercise classes
• Playing in local sports teams or at local sports clubs
• Watching sports matches (especially local ones)
• Charity volunteering
• Evening classes or study courses
• At a local pub (be aware it is only socially acceptable to talk to strangers in the area where drinks are served)
• Walking a dog
• Parent & baby groups or your child’s PTA at school
• Religious groups
• Musical or dance groups or local orchestras
• Local activity groups
• Civic societies

Other places to make friends

• Look out for ‘Chatter and Natter’ tables in your local café, if they are part of the Chatty Café Scheme. These special tables are where you can sit if you want to talk to others. Sainsbury’s supermarket offers a similar scheme in some of its cafes, called ‘Talking Tables’.
• Some rock festivals (such as Download or Bloodstock) have a special camping area for people on their own.
• On a working holiday. You stay with a group of people and do a conservation project lasting for a week or weekend, for example:

Canal camps (see the Waterways Recovery Group website)
National Trust working holidays (see the National Trust website)

• If you love dogs, but can’t have your own dog, consider becoming a ‘dog sitter’ (someone who looks after other people’s dogs while they are on holiday). The Barking Mad website is one example of a company offering this service.

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