Last Updated on 11 August 2026 by Dave King
Speed dating in Brighton comes down to three programmes and about two hours of your evening. Two are the traditional thing, seated while people rotate past you. The third is an astrology-led mixer where the speed dating is optional.
The four-minute dates at True Dating and Original Dating are shorter than everyone expects: long enough to find out where someone lives and what they do for work, nowhere near long enough to get to anything interesting. That is the point. You are sorting, not deciding. Here is what each involves, what they charge, and the small print on the free-next-event guarantees, which is not what the posters say.
Table of Contents
Speed Dating in Brighton at a Glance
| Organiser | Format | Venue | Price | Dates listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| True Dating | Seated rotation | The Park View, Preston Drove | £15 | Thu 13 Aug (30 to 45), September date listed inconsistently |
| Original Dating | Seated rotation | DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole | £22 | Wed 19 Aug (40 to 55), Tue 22 Sep, Tue 17 Nov (30 to 45) |
| Original Dating | Seated rotation | Brighton Music Hall, Kings Road Arches | £22 | Thu 22 Oct, Thu 10 Dec (40 to 55) |
| Original Dating | Lock and Key party | Fitz Regent, Castle Square | £20 to £25 | Fri 13 Nov (30 to 45) |
| Love at First Sign | Mixer, speed dating optional | Be At One, Castle Square; The Wine Cellar, Marlborough Place | £25 solo or £22 each for two; early bird £20 or £15 each | Thu 20 and 27 Aug (40s and 50s), Wed 9 and 16 Sep (30s and 40s), Tue 29 Sep (50+) |
Prices and dates as listed by the organisers in August 2026. The table dates fastest, but prices and timings below can move too, so check the organiser’s page before booking.
What Happens at a Seated Night
This covers True Dating and Original Dating. Love at First Sign works differently.
You give your name at a desk and someone hands you a badge and a card. That is the whole entry process, and worth knowing, because the dread beforehand is usually about walking in rather than the dating.
There is a short mingle with a drink, then the host explains the format. Both companies seat the women at tables and move the men round, so women spend the evening in one chair and men do laps.
Then the dates start. Four minutes each, a signal from the host, and you move. Mark your card as you go, because by date nine you will not remember date three. Original Dating give you yes, no or friend. True Dating use love, friend or no. Nobody sees your card except the organiser.
Halfway through there is a fifteen minute break, and it is the part people underestimate. The room stops being a formal exercise and becomes a normal evening in a pub, and a lot of the real conversation happens there.
You are free to stay on afterwards and both encourage it, partly because leaving immediately feels like a verdict.
Matching happens online the next day. You enter your ticks and only hear about people who ticked you back, and True Dating close at 4pm. Matches message through the site, so no numbers change hands.
Original Dating, on the Seafront
Original Dating run the bigger Brighton programme, roughly monthly, alternating between a 30 to 45 night and a 40 to 55 one. Tickets are £22, it starts at 7.30pm, and you get fifteen to twenty dates.
Their two venues sit a couple of minutes apart on Kings Road and feel completely different. The DoubleTree by Hilton Brighton Metropole is a hotel bar near the Brighton Centre, warm and easy to find. Brighton Music Hall is in the Kings Road Arches at beach level, lovely in October and colder in December.
In November they run a Lock and Key party at the Fitz Regent on Castle Square instead. Everyone gets a lock or a key and spends the evening finding who their piece opens, so it is mingling rather than a timed rotation.
They have been running events since 2003. If you see MySpeedDate advertising Brighton nights, that is the same operation. Their privacy policy names it as a brand that has become part of Original Dating, so it is a second way to book the same events.
True Dating, up at Preston Park
True Dating charge £15, which is seven pounds less than the other seated option. You get up to fifteen dates of four minutes and the same fifteen minute break.
They use The Park View on Preston Drove and reserve the downstairs, so you are not doing this in front of a pub quiz. Good pub, but a good mile and a half north of the seafront, and their page calling it the heart of Brighton is a stretch. Sort out how you are getting home.
Three things to check on the specific night. Their age brackets move a lot, having run at 24 to 36, 27 to 39, 28 to 42 and 30 to 45, so read the one you are booking. Their own event pages give a 6.30pm start while their Eventbrite listings say 7.30pm for the same nights. And their September date is listed inconsistently across their own pages, with the Brighton hub showing 24 September and another listing showing 10 September. Go by your booking confirmation and arrive for the earlier stated time.
Love at First Sign, the One That Is Not a Rotation
The third option is a singles mixer built around astrology, with speed dating offered as part of the evening rather than the whole of it. If two hours of timed conversations sounds like hard work, this is your alternative.
Doors at 7pm, icebreakers and optional speed dating from 7.30pm, free mingling from 9pm. An app is used to compare compatibility, which works as something to talk about more than a matching system.
Nights split by age into 30s and 40s, 40s and 50s, and over 50s, at Be At One on Castle Square and The Wine Cellar on Marlborough Place. Standard tickets are £25 solo or £22 each for two. The dates currently listed open at an early-bird £20 solo or £15 each for two, and at that rate a pair matches True Dating’s seated price, so check the offer is still showing. Be At One sits on the same square as the Fitz Regent.
LGBTQ+ Speed Dating
In the city with the country’s biggest Pride, this runs less reliably than you would expect.
The two seated programmes are built around men rotating and women staying seated, and Love at First Sign sells separate women’s and men’s tickets too. Their listings set out no other option, so ask the organiser if that matters to you.
What exists instead comes and goes. QWERKY Events have run gay and lesbian nights at Bar Broadway on Steine Street in Kemptown, 8pm starts, sold through Eventbrite, most recently listed in 2025. SpeedDater ran gay nights at The Bootlegger on Middle Street through 2025. Neither lists a current Brighton date, so follow the organisers directly rather than searching. The city’s LGBTQ+ nightlife does more of this job than the dating industry.
Also Worth Knowing
The free-next-event guarantees are not the same, and one is not free. True Dating’s covers a first event with no match only, one claim per customer, and excludes discounted tickets, per their booking terms. Original Dating’s is a paid add-on at booking, pays out as a six-month credit rather than a free ticket, and triggers only if you select nobody at all as a yes or friend, not because none of your picks matched you back.
Check the men’s and women’s tickets separately. All three show separate women’s and men’s availability, and the two seated companies say they manage the ratio deliberately. On one August night three men’s places were left while the women’s had gone to a waiting list.
Book ahead. Original Dating sell no tickets on the door, and True Dating warn about latecomers. Both describe their age ranges as guidance; Love at First Sign runs age-specific nights without saying whether people outside them can book.
Look at the year, not just the day and month. Event pages stay online long after the night has passed, so open the organiser’s own events page rather than the listing you landed on. Some national companies advertise speed dating in Brighton without running it: Slow Dating’s last nights here were in 2025, and DateinaDash lists none.
FAQs
How much is speed dating in Brighton?
£15 with True Dating and £22 with Original Dating for a seated night, and £20 to £25 for the Lock and Key party. Love at First Sign runs £20 to £25 solo, or £15 to £22 each for two, depending on whether the early-bird rate is still showing. Drinks are extra.
How long does it last?
About two hours for a seated night, in two halves with a fifteen minute interval. The Love at First Sign mixers run from 7pm and open into free mingling at 9pm.
How many people will I meet?
Fifteen to twenty at Original Dating, up to fifteen at True Dating, who say their Brighton nights draw thirty to fifty people.
Can you go on your own?
Yes. True Dating say most of their guests come alone, and Love at First Sign say the same. At the seated nights a desk, badge, card and briefing come before anything starts, so you are not left working out the format. Going with a friend is often more awkward, because you end up watching each other.
What do you talk about in four minutes?
Not your job, if you can help it, because most people ask that and you will hear yourself answering it twenty times. Ask what they did at the weekend, or how they ended up in Brighton, which works well because plenty of people here have a story about it.
Is there gay or lesbian speed dating in Brighton?
It has run, but not to a fixed schedule. QWERKY Events hosted gay and lesbian nights at Bar Broadway, and SpeedDater ran gay nights at The Bootlegger, most recently in 2025. Neither lists a current date.
What should I wear?
Smart casual. These are pubs and hotel bars, so dress as you would for an ordinary night in one.
What if nobody matches with me?
Depends who you booked with. True Dating give a free next event after a first event with no match, once per customer, and not on discounted tickets. Original Dating’s guarantee has to be bought at booking and only pays out if you did not want to see anybody again, so it will not help if you liked people and they did not pick you.
Final Thoughts
Speed dating in Brighton right now is two seated options and one mixer. The seated choice is geography and money: True Dating is £15, up at Preston Drove; Original Dating is £22, runs more often, and puts you on the seafront. Love at First Sign is the one to pick if the rotation itself is the bit you dread. Its early-bird pair price is £15 a head, rising to £22 each once the offer goes.
Book ahead, read the age bracket on the night you are booking, check the year on the date, and if you are counting on that guarantee, read what it covers first.
And if the diary is empty, a pub quiz or a cooking class puts you in a room with the same people every week, doing the same job more slowly and without the bell.
