@tomg- I can empathize with your situation. I would certainly look into travel if you’re into that. Meetup.com is great for finding people to connect with based on shared interests. They have UK meetups here.
I also got involved in some adult rec leagues for basketball and bowling in the last year, which are a lot of fun.
I would also consider taking up a creative pursuit- an instrument, photography like you mentioned, web design, clothing construction/alteration,just something that is an outlet for creative expression.
One idea a friend mentioned to me was: think about the things you use in your day to day life. Can you in-house the creation of any of that? Maybe you want a cool chair to do work in, or a nice pillow, or a a knife to prepare your food. Those are things you can learn to make, and then every time you use it, you have a reminder of your creative capacity, and a deeper relationship with your lived environment.
If you’re not tethered to your current job/living situation, there are lots of jobs/seasonal gigs out here in the States and elsewhere like Australia. You could also teach English abroad, especially in Asia and Latin America, and earn a live-able wage (and sometimes enough to save money). If you’re into learning earth skills, you could go WWOOFing or the like somewhere that appeals to you. Volunteer some time and you learn about food, organic farming or related skills while earning a place to stay and food in your belly.
As for finding a partner, don’t worry about getting your current self laid. Worry about getting the you in a year or five years from now laid. Work on becoming an interesting, talented, fit, higher energy person that people want to be around. You can’t work directly on being attractive- it’s more a consequence of living a life that is personally engaging, having goals and passions that motivate you and following through with them. Take some time, find out what those things are for you, and do the hell out of them. In the course of that, you’re much more likely to cross paths with someone who wants to get aboard that ship.
Good luck dude.