A friendship club, est. 2019
Hearthlane organises neighbourhood circles for adults who would like more people to call on — eight to twelve members, a steady time, a familiar place. Trail walks, shared suppers, quiet study evenings, welcome desks for newcomers.
Free to join · 18 and over · Circles meet in public spaces
Circle of the week
Alder Ridge Park · 9:00 AM, rain or shine
8–12 members · steady pace · beginners welcome
Led by a volunteer host who has walked this route with the group since 2021.
What we organise
Circles are kept small on purpose. The same people, the same weekday, a place you can find without checking a map twice — that is what turns a plan into a friendship.
01
Early walks on marked routes, followed by coffee for whoever has time. Conversation is welcome, silence is fine, and turning back early is easy to arrange.
2–4 hours · Weekly
02
Small dinners in members' kitchens and community halls. One dish each, one story each. Hosts rotate, so the cooking does not land on the same person two months running.
6–10 people · Monthly
03
Quiet hours for people learning a language, finishing a thesis, mending a coat or knitting something long. Company while you work, tea included.
Weeknights · Drop-in
04
Just arrived in the city? A volunteer host introduces you to a circle in your own neighbourhood and walks in with you.
Open year-round
Joining, step by step
Tell us your city, the things you already enjoy, and the kind of company you are after. It takes about three minutes.
A volunteer near you reads your note and replies by email — usually with two or three circles that fit your week.
Arrive as a guest. Your host introduces you to the group, and you can ask anything before deciding to stay.
Circles are not contracts. Change groups, take a season off, or train to host a circle of your own.
Community snapshot
Hearthlane is member-supported and deliberately unhurried. We publish a few plain numbers each quarter so you can see who you would be joining.
Figures are internal membership records, refreshed each quarter and rounded. Membership itself carries no fee; where a circle needs a venue or materials, the host sets a modest share and writes it in the circle description. Hearthlane does not sell member data.
Invite requests and circle profiles are read by our community team. Screening tools flag problems; they do not make the call on who joins.
Hosts schedule in parks, libraries, cafés and community halls — somewhere with a name, a door and staff. Private addresses are not listed in circle pages.
Our community guidelines fit on a single page, are written without jargon, and are reviewed with members once a year.
Every circle has a named host, and every member can reach our member care inbox directly. Reports are read the next working day.
Request an invite
Requests are read by the community team every week. You will hear back by email — from a person, with a suggestion or a straight answer.
A welcome host will reply by email within a few days. If you would rather reach a person directly, write to [email protected].