After losing his friend Rob, 29, to suicide, Dean Perryman decided very early on to use the complexity that surrounded his grief to create Empty Chairs, a campaign set out to show up, make space for people, and tackle loneliness.
While December often marks a time filled with festive celebrations, for some, it represents a brutally lonely time of year.
Throughout the month, Dean reserved tables in pubs across London and Essex and invited strangers to join him, so no one had to sit alone.
In the weeks after losing Rob, Dean spoke with a friend about how wherever they go, there is always an empty chair where Rob would have been.
After struggling with this idea, Dean started to think about how many other people are dealing with the same issues and the same empty chairs.
With the unimaginable loss of his best friend and a lingering sense of guilt around whether he could have done more to help Rob, Dean created Empty Chairs as an embodiment of these feelings.
Why Chicken Rush?
Chicken Rush is a live, GPS-powered game which combines hide-and-seek with treasure hunting.
As growth lead for the company, Dean decided to use their TikTok page, which has over 40,000 followers, to get as many strangers involved with the campaign as possible.
Started as a rebellion against record-high screen time amongst adults and the growing closure of pubs across the UK, Chicken Rush ‘ties in quite nicely’ to Empty Chairs ‘because what we’re good at is getting strangers together’, according to Dean.
So far, the social media content documenting the campaign’s success has been viewed more than 700,000 times on TikTok. One person commented: “I’m so glad you’re doing this! London is such a lonely city compared to other places in the UK. Please continue doing this.”
Discussing the impulsivity behind the campaign’s creation, Dean said: “There was no grand plan; it was just I’m going to be in a pub for all of December.”
He added: “I started it, and I thought, it sounds silly to say out loud, but if I could reach one or two people, then that would be amazing, and I think we basically did that on day 1.”
Throughout December, Dean and other volunteers at Chicken Rush have filled 81 empty chairs across pubs in London and Essex to combat loneliness and help people find community again in an era dominated by screen time and hybrid working.
Does Britain have a loneliness problem?
The loneliness epidemic across Britain has been widely discussed by academics and experts, with an increasing number of studies being dedicated to understanding the prevalence and impacts of loneliness.
Empty Chairs has worked to create low-pressure spaces for people where genuine human connection can occur, with the idea that loneliness can affect individuals of all ages in mind.
Recent data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown that 33% of Britons aged 16 to 29 reported feeling lonely ‘often, always, or some of the time’.
This was the highest among all age groups, with just 17% of those over 70 reporting feeling the same.
Feelings of loneliness among younger age groups have been substantiated by various other studies reviewed by the World Health Organisation. The UN agency previously declared loneliness as a ‘pressing health threat’ back in 2023.
Discussing how Empty Chairs has impacted him personally, Dean said: “It’s been incredible for me because I’m not the kind of person who talks about things like this.
“In the bullet point list of how I would describe myself, being willing to cry in public and talk to strangers was not something that would’ve come up.”
What’s next?
Dean and the team at Chicken Rush have assured followers of their plans to continue Empty Chairs on a nationwide scale into 2026 after being inundated by messages from people across the country.
He said: “I think it’s such a simple idea, and it could spread pretty quickly if we can find enough people who are willing to put themselves out there.
“It is a bit of a risk, and you need to be the kind of person who is okay possibly being there on their own.”
When asked what he would say to people who might want to participate in one of the empty chairs events but feel too nervous, Dean responded: “Well firstly, I’m there and most nights before I turn up I’m also quite nervous about whether I’m going to be sat in a pub on my own for 2 hours just looking at a wall or at the empty chairs.”
He added: “In the grand scheme of things, it’s a very relaxed space, everyone’s welcome. Come talk. Don’t talk. There’s no pressure, just hang out as long as you want and leave whenever you want – there’s literally no rules to it.”
Featured image credit: Unsplash
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