One Empty Chair Becomes a Global Movement to Bring Strangers Together

What began with one empty chair in a pub has grown into an international movement encouraging strangers to sit together and talk.

Dean Perryman, from Hockley in Essex, started the Empty Chairs project after losing his best friend, Rob Clancy, in November 2025.

Rather than keeping his grief to himself, Dean decided to create a simple space where people who felt alone could meet someone else.

A Simple Idea

Dean began visiting pubs, sitting at a table and deliberately leaving chairs empty. Anyone who wanted company could join him.

There was no formal programme and no requirement for people to explain why they had come. The idea was simply to provide a friendly place where strangers could talk, or just sit together.

At first, Dean did not know whether anyone would take up the invitation. On the fourth day of his original campaign, someone finally joined him at a table in Benfleet, Essex.

The Idea Spreads

The concept quickly attracted attention online. Other people began organising their own Empty Chairs gatherings, wearing bright orange so newcomers could easily identify them.

Within months, the project had spread beyond the UK to countries including Belgium, Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

People of different ages and backgrounds have taken part, with some returning to meet people they first encountered at earlier gatherings.

Turning Loss Into Connection

For Dean, the project remains closely connected to the memory of his friend.

He said the idea came from the feeling that wherever he went, there would always be an empty chair where Rob should have been sitting.

That image became the inspiration for a project designed to make sure other people do not have to face an empty chair alone.

A Growing Community

Less than a year after Dean started the project, he is now hoping to expand Empty Chairs across the UK while continuing to support events in other countries.

The story has attracted people who simply want to meet new friends, as well as those who may be experiencing loneliness or moving to a new area.

What started as one man sitting alone at a pub table has become a growing network of people choosing to make room for someone they have never met.

Sources

• BBC News — “Founder aims to grow anti-loneliness pub project”
• BBC World Service — “The Happy Pod: Filling the empty chair left by my best friend”
• Empty Chairs — Official project website