One street, three districts, and the stretch that decides who arrives first

Fifteen minutes from top to bottom

Sloane Street runs almost dead straight from the Knightsbridge crossroads, where Harvey Nichols holds the corner, down to Sloane Square. It takes about fifteen minutes to walk at an easy pace, and in that distance it passes through three of this board's zones without a single sign to mark any of them. Knightsbridge holds the top. Belgravia lies behind the eastern side. Chelsea waits at the bottom, where the square opens out and the King's Road sets off to the west.

The northern end is mostly shops, flagship boutiques behind tall plate glass. Further south the street turns residential, with red brick mansion blocks and the railed gardens of Cadogan Place. Most of it belongs to a single estate, which is why it looks so consistent from end to end. That consistency hides the fact that a hotel at one end and a hotel at the other are, for the purposes of an arrival, in different parts of town.

The top of the street: Knightsbridge

Knightsbridge station comes up about a minute from the top of Sloane Street, on the Piccadilly line, and the first stretch south of it is the busiest, with the shops full until early evening. A tower stands on Cadogan Place just off the eastern pavement, and Hyde Park is a few minutes north through Albert Gate. All of this counts as Knightsbridge, SW1X.

The three women who live in Knightsbridge are the nearest to this stretch and the first the office asks. They are joined by the Belgravia residents, because the streets behind the eastern side, Lowndes Square and the roads beyond it, lead straight into their district. A hotel at the top of Sloane Street is therefore drawing on seven residents, and the usual hour from the office confirming holds here even on a busy night.

The middle: Pont Street, Cadogan Place and the corner house

Halfway down, Pont Street crosses Sloane Street and the character changes. The shops thin out. The gardens of Cadogan Place run along the eastern side behind their railings, and on the western side a hotel takes the corner, the building in which Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895. Behind the western pavement runs Pavilion Road, a quiet back lane of small food shops, a bakery and a few restaurants, which most people walking Sloane Street never notice.

This middle stretch is the true seam. East of the street, Belgravia and its quieter squares are a few minutes' walk away. West of it, the garden square of Hans Place and the tall red brick of Cadogan Square both count as Knightsbridge for booking purposes. South, towards the square, the streets begin to feel like Chelsea. A room here is within reach of all three groups, and the office will look across Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea without being asked.

The same logic applies at several other addresses across town, from Hyde Park Corner to Leicester Square, and our note on hotels that sit between two zones goes through them one by one.

The foot of the street: Sloane Square and Chelsea

Near the bottom, Holy Trinity Sloane Street, a tall Arts and Crafts church, is the last big building before the square. Sloane Square itself has the Royal Court Theatre on its eastern side beside the station, Peter Jones along its western side, and plane trees ringing a fountain in the middle. The King's Road leaves from the western side and runs on for well over a mile.

Sloane Square station, on the Circle and District lines, sits right against the Royal Court. SW3 2RP and SW3 2RJ are both a few minutes north of the square, in the quiet garden streets just west of Sloane Street, and count as Chelsea for booking purposes.

Down here the fastest arrivals come from the three Chelsea residents, followed by Belgravia across Eaton Square and the streets towards it. The Knightsbridge residents now have the furthest to come, which is the exact reverse of the order at the top of the street.

Why the stretch matters

Put simply, the order of who arrives first flips as you walk down Sloane Street. At the top it is Knightsbridge, then Belgravia, then Chelsea. At the bottom it is Chelsea, then Belgravia, then Knightsbridge. Belgravia stays second the whole way down because it runs along the entire eastern side, which makes its four residents the steadiest choice for any address on the street.

The gap between first and third is small next to the hour the office quotes for any of them. It matters more when you want a particular woman, or when the office is choosing between two companions who are both free. Tell it the hotel, or the building number if it is a flat, and it will choose accordingly.

Among the statuesque names the spread along this street is almost perfect. Violetta and Patricia live on the Belgravia side, while Michelle and Stacy live a few streets from Sloane Square. Any of the four can keep the usual hour to a door on Sloane Street, and all four are at ease across a longer evening.

An unhurried evening laid along it

The street is well shaped for the unhurried evening, three hours at £700 with nothing running to a schedule. Meet at the top for a drink in a hotel bar, walk south as the shops close and the pavements empty, and eat near the bottom, on Pavilion Road or around the square. The walk back north afterwards, past the gardens of Cadogan Place, is quiet enough to talk the whole way.

If there is a play at the Royal Court, the same shape works the other way round: an early table near the square, the performance, and a late walk up the street to a hotel at the Knightsbridge end. Put the curtain time in the first message. If dinner, the play and the walk all need to fit, the four hour dinner date at £900 is the safer shape, and the office will say so.

Wherever the evening runs, the fee is handed to her in person when she arrives, and her journey from whichever end of the street she lives at is already inside it. Sylvie will quote the window once she knows the address.