A residential map of the board, and what it does to an arrival window

The map behind every window

When the office tells you she will be with you in about an hour, or in two, the number is neither a guess nor a sales line. It comes from a map of where the twenty eight women on the board actually live, laid over the address you have sent. Where companions live close, the hour holds even on a bad night. Where nobody does, the office says two and means it.

The map is lopsided, and the office would rather publish it that way than smooth it over. Half the board lives in the south west, between Belgravia and South Kensington. Most of the rest live in the middle of W1 and WC2, with three in Paddington. Nobody lives in Shoreditch or at Canary Wharf. Almost every statement the office makes about timing follows from those four facts.

What follows is the map, zone by zone. It names a few women where a name helps, not all twenty eight; the who is free page carries the full list with the current diary and any away dates written against each name.

W1: Mayfair, Soho and Marylebone

Eight women live in the middle of W1. Three are in Mayfair, inside W1K and W1J, which is why that zone is where the usual hour holds most reliably: about an hour from the office confirming on a weekday evening, and longer on a Friday when Park Lane has stopped moving. Three more live in Soho, in W1D, and between them they carry most of the late bookings in the middle of town.

The other two are in Marylebone, either side of the High Street. Rosa is one of them, and her knowledge of every hotel north of Oxford Street is much of the reason a Marylebone dinner comes together so readily when the office has a day in hand. Jasmin, in Soho, is the name most often free the same evening, because whichever W1 hotel the office happens to be asking about is in her own part of town.

Taken together, W1 is the part of the board where a same evening request most often turns into a yes. If one Mayfair resident is booked, a Soho or Marylebone one can usually keep the same hour, and the office will offer her rather than suggest you try tomorrow.

WC2: the three in Covent Garden

Three women live in Covent Garden, close to the Piazza and the theatres. They make WC2E one of the easiest zones on the board for a theatre night, because the companion is already in the district when the curtain comes down, and the walk from a supper table to a hotel on the Strand is one she makes most weeks.

Their presence also steadies the timing across the rest of the West End umbrella. A hotel on Leicester Square, or in the streets above Seven Dials, sits between the Covent Garden and the Soho residents, which gives the office six names to draw on without anybody crossing town.

The south west: half the board in five districts

Fourteen women live in the south west, and it is the densest part of the map. Four are in Belgravia, three in Knightsbridge, three in Chelsea and three in South Kensington. The fourteenth lives in Pimlico, just below Victoria, and is the only one on the board in that postcode.

The Belgravia four include Lea, who knows SW1 street by street and prefers shorter evenings close to home. Between them, the fourteen make SW1, SW3 and SW7 nearly as dependable as Mayfair for an evening booked on the day, with one caveat. Chelsea is longer than it looks, and a hotel down at the World's End or at Chelsea Harbour is a real journey even from the King's Road.

The three in South Kensington also serve Kensington proper. Nobody lives inside W8 itself, but SW7 sits just south of the High Street, so a Kensington booking is quoted at the same hour as the middle of town, and it is the South Kensington names who make that hour easy to keep.

Paddington: three by the station

Three women live in W2, near the station and the canal. That gives Paddington a local supply of its own, which matters because so many bookings there begin after a late train or a delayed flight. A companion who lives in the same postcode can absorb a moved start time without anybody noticing, and the office treats a changed hour as routine.

The Elizabeth line makes the W2 residents unusually mobile as well. Bond Street is four minutes from Paddington by rail, so in the early evening, with the roads solid, a W2 name can keep to the hour in Mayfair more reliably than some who live closer and have to come by car.

The empty east, and why it needs notice

Nobody on the board lives in Shoreditch, and nobody lives at Canary Wharf. The office says so on both zone pages rather than pretending otherwise. Every booking east of the City therefore starts with a cross town journey, and the office quotes it plainly: an hour or a little more to Shoreditch in the evening, an hour and a quarter or more to the wharf, and longer again on a Friday.

That is why the eastern zones ask for several hours of notice rather than one, and why the office quotes a window rather than a time. The two names who make the run most often both live in the south west. Lucy crosses from Pimlico for Shoreditch nights, and Milena comes from South Kensington for the wharf. Neither journey costs you anything extra, because travel is inside the fee across Zones 1 and 2. It costs time, and the office would rather you knew that before you booked than found it out at the door.

Using the map when you book

Most bookings on the board are door calls across the zones: one companion, one address, an hour at £250 or longer. When you send the hotel name, the office lays it over this map and comes back with the names who can keep the hour it quotes, and once she sets off her exact time arrives in the same WhatsApp or Telegram thread. If the woman you wanted lives on the far side of town, it will tell you how long her journey is and leave the decision with you.

The petite list shows how the map spreads. Its seven names live in Soho, Marylebone, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden and Pimlico, so wherever you are staying in the middle of town, at least one of them is close. The figures are identical whoever you choose and wherever she lives, and the fee passes to her by hand the moment she arrives.

Sylvie keeps the map current, and when it changes the windows quoted on the zone pages change with it. If you are staying somewhere awkward for the board, a hotel on the line between two districts is often the best compromise, and our note on boundary hotels lists the ones that draw on two sets of residents at once.