LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///LONDON /// APPLICATION-ONLY /// NO ALGORITHMS /// HUMAN CURATED ///
UK audiences for Tinder, Bumble and Hinge fell between May 2023 and May 2024, according to Ofcom. The project’s view is that this reflects dissatisfaction with the swipe model itself.
−594,000Tinder UK users
−368,000Bumble UK users
−131,000Hinge UK users
May 2023 to May 2024. Source: Ofcom, Online Nation 2024 archive.
A curated, application-only format.
The project designs evenings in which the structure of the room, rather than an algorithm or an open mixer, does the relational work. It is for people in their twenties and early thirties, starting in London.
No algorithmPeople decide who meets whom
Application onlyNot launched yet
20s and early 30sLondon first
Founded by Sam Cope.
Sam Cope is building the project alongside full-time employment. An events and operations co-founder has joined, a strategic advisor for growth is on board, and a co-founder for community-led growth and partnerships is being sought.
The Human Connection Index collects 125 sourced records on connection, loneliness and dating behaviour in the UK and beyond. The Algorithm Autopsy analyses six dating products.
The Dalloway Project is a culture company that studies how people meet and hosts application-only gatherings for people in their twenties and early thirties, starting in London.
Position
The project’s position is that the format of an evening, not an algorithm, determines whether people meet well.
Finding
The project’s analysis is that London’s challenge is not a shortage of single people but of settings in which they can become visible to one another.
Press kit
Boilerplate
The Dalloway Project is a culture company about how people meet. It designs gatherings where strangers have something to do together, writes Field Notes about how people meet, date, and manage to miss each other anyway, and builds the research to back it up, including the Human Connection Index. Its gatherings are application-only, for people in their twenties and early thirties, and a real person reads every application. It starts in London, then takes the format on the road. It began in 2026 as an offline dating experiment, founded by Sam Cope. Its first gatherings have not run yet.
