Which part of London goes home first, and which has barely started

No closing time, and a dozen of them anyway

The eleven o'clock bell stopped being a legal requirement in England and Wales in 2005, when each venue became free to apply for hours of its own. Plenty of guests still arrive expecting a city that shuts at eleven, and plenty of others expect one that never shuts at all. Neither is right. What London actually has is twelve separate habits, one for each part of town on this board, and the gap between the earliest and the latest of them is about four hours.

That matters for one practical reason. An evening that finishes in the wrong zone at the wrong hour usually ends in a taxi to somewhere else, which means forty minutes of a booking spent looking at the back of a driver's head. Knowing when a district winds down lets you put the late part of a night where it will be welcome, and the early part where it will not be hurried.

What follows is the office's reading of each zone, from the first to go quiet to the last. The hours are approximate and based on a weekday. Individual places set their own, and a Friday adds roughly an hour almost everywhere except the residential squares, which keep the same hours whatever the day.

First to go quiet: Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Marylebone

Belgravia is the earliest. The small dining rooms along Motcomb Street, Elizabeth Street and Eccleston Street are full at eight and emptying by half past ten, and the stucco squares around them have been silent for an hour before that. A pub tucked into one of the mews will still be pouring, but the district does not want a second act, and the walk home under the lamps is the better ending anyway.

Knightsbridge is close behind. Kitchens along Beauchamp Place and around Knightsbridge Green thin out by half past ten, the shoppers left hours earlier, and what remains open is mostly a handful of hotel bars facing the park. Marylebone keeps ordinary village hours: the High Street is lively at eight, gentle at ten and asleep soon after eleven, while the consulting room terraces of Harley Street and Wimpole Street have been dark since early evening.

In all three the lesson is the same. Start at seven, not nine. Sonya, who lives in Knightsbridge, asks for the seven o'clock table for precisely this reason: the best of these districts has happened by half past ten, and arriving at nine buys you only the end of it.

The middle hours: Chelsea, Kensington, Mayfair, Paddington and the wharf

Chelsea and Kensington run about half an hour later. The King's Road pubs and the bigger rooms near Sloane Square carry on to around eleven, and in W8 a few kitchens on the high street and off Kensington Church Street still serve after ten. Beyond that both turn back into neighbourhoods rather than nights out, pleasant to walk through, with very little left to walk into.

Mayfair is a divided case. Its streets are quiet by ten and its restaurants turn their last tables around then, but the grand hotel bars along Park Lane, Brook Street and Albemarle Street keep going long after the dining rooms close, and they are the reason the district still feels awake at midnight. Paddington is similar in shape: the canal side goes dark early, the station side stays lit, and the late option is nearly always a hotel bar rather than anywhere on the street.

Canary Wharf belongs in this group, with a twist. The bars around Cabot Square and the water are at their busiest straight after work and thin out through the evening, so by eleven on a weekday the estate is almost empty. The difference from the residential zones is that the Jubilee line runs through the night on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes a late finish out there simpler than it looks.

Late: Covent Garden and the West End

Covent Garden sets its clock by the theatres. Curtains come down between about half past nine and eleven, and the district then has a second rush as supper rooms fill with people who have just watched something together. Most kitchens here are still taking orders at eleven, and the busiest brasseries later than that. By half past midnight the Piazza has emptied, apart from people walking up to the Tube.

The wider West End runs to the same timetable with a louder tail. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Shaftesbury Avenue stay crowded past midnight at weekends, which is lively and useful for nothing in particular. The helpful point is that nothing in this part of town forces an early finish, so a booking here can be shaped around the show rather than around the kitchens.

Last to leave: Soho and Shoreditch

Soho is the only zone in the middle of town that genuinely runs late on a weeknight. Bar Italia on Frith Street, the espresso bar that has been serving since 1949, is still full when most of the city has gone to bed, and Ronnie Scott's across the road often puts on a late set after its main show. Between them sit dozens of small rooms taking last orders at eleven or later. Three women on this board live in the postcode, which is why a midnight finish here costs nobody a long journey home.

Shoreditch is later still, and it starts later too. Dining rooms fill from half past eight, bars from ten, and the streets around Shoreditch High Street, Curtain Road and the top of Brick Lane are busy after midnight even in the middle of the week. The bagel bakery at the top of Brick Lane, famous for never closing, is the traditional final stop. Nobody on the board lives in the east, so the office asks for more notice there and suggests a later start rather than a later finish.

Tiffany, who lives in Soho, is the name to ask for if you want the evening to run past midnight, because she treats one in the morning as an ordinary hour. Lucy crosses from Pimlico for Shoreditch nights and likes them to begin at eight or later. Most of the late names on the board are brunettes, as it happens, Molly and Jasmin in Soho among them; that is coincidence rather than policy.

Getting home once your zone has closed

On Friday and Saturday nights the Night Tube runs on the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, which between them serve most central hotels. On other nights the last trains leave at around half past midnight and the night buses take over, with many routes passing along Oxford Street or through Trafalgar Square. Companions travel by taxi at that hour, and her fare is inside the fee.

For you, the better plan is usually to finish the evening in the zone your hotel is in, or one that borders it. That is one more reason to put the late part of the night somewhere that stays open and the early part somewhere that does not. A dinner in Marylebone followed by a late drink in Soho works well. The reverse, a late start in the east and a walk home in a village that has gone to bed, is a long taxi you did not need.

Booking an evening that runs late

The out late and across town plan is built for exactly this: a table, a bar and the long way home, with the finish time agreed in the first message rather than negotiated at eleven. Three hours at £700 is the usual length. Four at £900 suits a night that begins at dinner and ends in Soho. The fee is handed to her in person when she arrives.

Tell Sylvie the start and the finish you actually want, and the zone you would like to end up in. She will suggest a companion whose own evening runs that late and, if the plan crosses town at the wrong moment, a better order to do it in. If your trip includes a Monday, read our note on which kitchens open on a Monday as well, because early in the week the map changes again.