Part of Notes from the Road, our city-by-city series.
London runs on the Tube, and so, it turns out, does London dating. Within a day I was being asked what zone I lived in, the way people in other cities ask which neighbourhood. Zone 2 to zone 4 is nothing on a map. In practice it is a different evening entirely.
Then there is the river. North and south of the Thames behave almost like two cities that happen to share a name, and "I'm not crossing the river" is a sentence people say without a trace of irony. A personal ad is built for this. You can name your area, your zone, and how far you will actually go, before anyone commits to an hour on the Northern line.
Postcodes do real work here. An E8 night out is not an SW evening, and the gap between them is measured in time, not distance. The night Tube helps, the river does not, and everyone has a quiet limit on how far they will travel for a first drink. Saying that limit out loud, in the ad, saves two people a long journey toward a polite goodbye.
A text-first ad lets you put it in plain words, your area, your zone, your scene, and how far you are willing to go. AseeksB is American-built and most of its crowd is still stateside, so in London treat it as an early, honest way to post what you are after and see who is around, not a crowded local listing. It is free to download and post, and every post shows how far it was made from while you browse.
If you would rather say what you mean than swipe and guess, a written ad is the honest way to start. AseeksB is free to download and post, so you can write your ad for London and see who turns up nearby. Moderated, on iOS and Android.
Write what you are looking for in London, in your own words. Free to download and post on iOS and Android.