‘I’ve Been On Two Park Dates Already’: Lockdown And The Rise Of The Park Hook-Up

‘Wait, does this mean I can shag [insert random Hinge match] in the park?’ a friend jokingly – I hope – texted me after Boris Johnson’s new lockdown measures were announced on Sunday. ‘I’m pretty sure that’s already illegal to be honest,’ I laughed, secretly terrified that this was the text friends all over the UK were receiving in response to the relaxed rules around meeting someone outside your home.

Clarifying the measures yesterday, the government confirmed that you can now meet one person from outside your household as long as you’re outdoors and maintain social-distancing measures. Unfortunately, that means a solid no to the - again, already illegal –public shagging dreams, but does it mean we can start dating again?

Logically, the answer is yes - provided you do actually sit or walk two metres away from said date. But will it actually be safe? And, if you do stick to the rules, will it even be a good date?

Lauren*, 34 from Falkirk, already knows – because she’s actually been dating the entire time we’ve been in lockdown. ‘I’ve been on two park dates,’ she says. ‘Both of them I matched on Bumble and we went for a walk and talked for about an hour. On the second, he actually brought beers so we stopped and sat on a bench drinking them for a while.'

‘The first one I instantly didn’t fancy so kept two metres away,’ Lauren continues. ‘But the second was going well and we were definitely closer than two metres when we sat down for a drink.’

For Lauren, while park dates aren’t her preferred date location, she admits she wouldn’t hesitate to break social distancing if she actually liked the guy she went on a date with. And that’s the real fear isn’t it, because social-distancing dates sound all well and good until you actually succeed in the mission of dating – that is wanting to rip each other’s clothes of.

‘I’ve seen loads of people in my local park that you just know were on dates and didn't live together from looking at them,’ says Anna, 32 from London. ‘One couple were kissing with a passion that you would just not have after being in lockdown together. Another I heard them talking about their separate houses – plus the woman was in heels, a dead giveaway.’

According to data from police forces across England and Wales, 9,000 fines were issued against people not complying with social-distancing in April although only 9% of people are actively resistant to lockdown. While there are no exact figures on how many people are meeting up to date, the figures do show that most people are abiding by social-distancing rules.

In fact, many single people we spoke to have refused park dates point blank due to a fear of not being able to resist social-distancing. ‘So much of my dating life recently has been way more sexually charged than normal,’ says Lily*, 26 from Manchester. ‘It’s like the idea of not actually being able to meet them makes you lose all normal inhibitions, knowing you won’t have to answer to the promises you’re making for a while. So then, when they do eventually ask me to go on a park date – which three of the men I’ve been talking to have – I avoid it at all costs.'

‘I just feel like it would either be really awkward or I’d just end up breaking the rules in some way,’ she continues ‘One guy had been sexting non-stop and outright told me he would pick me up and hug me and if he saw me, then thought it was weird that I was resistant to actually meeting him. Just because I want to break the rules, doesn’t mean I’m going to actually prioritise my desires above other people’s lives.’

Perhaps all these Netflix dating shows are onto something and we should all follow the philosophies of Too Hot To Handle or Love Is Blind during lockdown... Petition for Boris to offer a cash prize for dating restraint? Now that’s something we’d sign.

*Some names have been changed.

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