The 10 best expat meetups in London, 2026

Right. London is the most international city in the world by some measures, and the meetup infrastructure for new arrivals is correspondingly enormous and chaotic. The list below is the actually-decent shortlist — ten that consistantly run, draw real crowds, and give you a reasonable shot at coming home with a phone number or two.

If you're new in town, the right strategy is probably: pick three off this list, go to each twice (giving each a fair chance), and build from there.

InterNations London

The biggest organised international expat network and yes, despite the slightly corporate aesthetic, it works. Multiple events a week — the monthly Official Mixers (big, broad, easy to drop into), themed dinners (smaller, properly social), and a calendar of professional meetups (finance, tech, creative, etc.).

Membership-based, but the trial events are free and you can attend two before signing up. About £8/month for proper membership. Worth it if you're committing.

New In London Meetup

The biggest free Meetup.com group for newcomers. Pub meetups (weekly), walks (weekend), brunches, occasional bigger events. The friendliest first stop in London — the regulars are explicitly there to welcome new arrivals and the format is "show up, say hi to whoever's there."

Free, no membership, just RSVP via Meetup.

London Tandem Language Exchange

The language-exchange events. French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean strands all run separately, each weekly. Cheap (£3-£8 entry), the format is structured (10-minute speed-rotation halves) but the post-event drinks are where the friendships happen.

The French and Spanish nights are the busiest. The Korean and Japanese ones are smaller and tighter.

London Hiking Club

Day-hikes out of London — Surrey Hills, Chilterns, South Downs, Box Hill, Seven Sisters. Multiple skill levels, proper organised train-from-Waterloo logistics, the post-walk pub is reliably the actual point. £10-£20 per walk depending on distance.

The proper escape route from London weekday life and an unusually friendly community — the format (six hours together walking) builds real connections faster than three pubs do.

Thirty-Plus Singles in London

The non-creepy 30-plus singles meetup that's actually held up over the years. Pubs, dinners, the occasional bigger event. Mixed-gender, well-run, the regulars are friendly. £8-£15 per event.

Worth distinguishing: this is a singles social group, not a dating-app-replacement. Most people aren't there hunting; they're there for friends-and-maybe.

London Football Meetup

Casual football. Multiple groups by skill level — beginners, social, intermediate, the seven-a-side league. Pitches in Hackney Marshes, Battersea, Regent's Park. £5-£10 a session, weekly.

Properly the easiest way for football-curious guys to make friends in their first month. The post-match pub is built into the format.

Bumble BFF London events

The friendship-app spinoff runs IRL events. Wine nights, paint classes, brunches, occasional bigger socials. Skews women, late-20s/30s, properly easy entry — the app pre-screens vibe-compatibility before the event.

Not free, usually £15-£35 depending on event. Worth it if the app-first format suits you.

Themed walking tours / pub crawls / food walks

A few overlapping operators (Chivalry Now, Brewmaster Tours, Strawberry Tours, others) run themed walks that function as social meetups. The Soho pub crawl, the East End food walk, the Bermondsey beer walk. Touristy on the surface, properly social in practice — small groups, the host facilitates, the post-tour drink is the actual event.

London Climbing Meetup

Bouldering and rope-climbing meetups at The Castle (Stoke Newington), VauxWall (Vauxhall), The Climbing Hangar (multiple). The bouldering walls are unusually social — sweat-icebreaker built in, you're forced to talk between attempts, the regulars are friendly to newcomers. £10-£15 entry, sessions weekly.

Nationality-specific clubs

The American Women of London, Canadian Women of London, French in London, Australian Society, Italian Cultural Institute, etc. all run monthly mixers. More structured than the open meetups, often a small membership fee, useful for the established-expat crowd more than the new-arrival but worth knowing.

What's missing from this list

A few things I haven't included because they don't consistantly run, or have thinned out: the older "London Newcomers" Meetup has gone quiet, Couchsurfing London meetups are essentially defunct since 2024, and the various Facebook expat groups are mostly recommendation-board now rather than IRL-meetup. Skip them.

How to actually find these

Most live on Meetup.com, Eventbrite, or the operator's own site. Tracking them is annoying because they're fragmented. We pull them all into Rifio — the London events calendar tags newcomer-friendly events and you can filter by free, by neighbourhood, by date.

Two practical notes: the post-Christmas / new-year period (January-February) is busiest because half of London is making new-friend resolutions. And the autumn (September-October) is the second-busiest, because that's when the new academic year and new hires arrive.

That's the ten. Pick three, give each two visits, build from there. London is genuinely friendly to new arrivals once you find the right rooms.