Escorts in Dover Street, W1S: who is close, and how soon
'Dover Street changes with the year faster than anywhere else in Mayfair,' says Sylvie, whose name is on most of the office's replies, 'because Green Park is at the bottom of it, and the park decides what the whole street feels like.' The street runs north from Piccadilly with the park across the road at its foot, and Green Park station is a minute's walk away, so the season is the first thing anyone arriving here meets. The same hour looks and feels different here in February and in June. Dover Street itself houses none of the board, but three of the names sleep elsewhere in Mayfair, which lets the office keep its usual central figure for Dover Street escorts: an hour or thereabouts once it confirms, longer in the evening rush whatever the month, her exact time sent as she sets off and every length set out on the rates. Here is the street, season by season.
On the ground
Dover Street in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1S 4BP, W1J 9BR, W1J 8LT, W1J 7BH.
Nearest stations
Walking timeGreen Park, 1 minute. Piccadilly Circus, 7 minutes. Bond Street, 9 minutes.
Getting there
W1STravel is included across Zones 1 and 2, and counted from the moment the hour is set rather than from when she leaves.
On the board
Nearest prints to Dover Street
Who works here
On the board in Dover Street
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Dover Street tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Winter: early dark and lit windows
From November it is dark before five, and Dover Street turns into a corridor of lit windows: gallery fronts, shop displays and the glow of first floor rooms above them. The park at the bottom is a dark mass of bare plane trees behind the railings. Christmas lights go up over Bond Street and Regent Street, a few streets east, from November into the new year, and the crowds they draw make Piccadilly slow on a December evening.
Winter evenings here are compact. Nobody wants a long walk in the cold, so the shape that works is a table close by, a short step back and an early start to the evening rather than a late one. January is the quietest winter month, once the shoppers have gone home and the galleries are hanging their new year shows, and for escorts in Dover Street that makes it the calmest time to arrange an unhurried evening.
Note 03
Spring: daffodils across the road
Green Park has no formal flower beds, only grass and trees, which makes its spring all the more obvious when it comes: daffodils spread under the trees and across the lawns, and for a few weeks the view from the foot of Dover Street is yellow. When the clocks go forward at the end of March the evenings suddenly have light in them again, and a walk through the park before dinner becomes a real option rather than a dash.
The street itself wakes up with the galleries' spring shows and the first evenings warm enough to stand outside a door. Spring is the season when an early evening booking makes the most sense here: arrive in daylight, walk as it fades, sit down to eat as the windows come on. By May the plane trees are back in leaf, and the view down the street ends in green again rather than grey.
Note 04
Summer: long light and the Academy's open show
Around midsummer it stays light until after nine, and the street stays light long after the offices have emptied. Striped deckchairs appear in Green Park for hire through the warmer months, and the lawns fill with office workers at lunch and people lingering in the evening. Further east along Piccadilly, the Royal Academy of Arts at Burlington House holds its Summer Exhibition, an open show that has run every year since 1769 and draws crowds through the summer.
August is different. Many galleries close for a week or two or slow right down, a good share of residents are away, and the street is at its emptiest of the year. For a guest in town that month, it means quiet pavements and easy tables, and a long evening that can start in the park and end well after dark without either of you noticing the time.
Note 05
Autumn: the season starts again
September brings Mayfair back to work. The galleries reopen with their autumn shows, private views fill the pavements for an hour at a time, and the art fairs of October bring collectors to the streets around Dover Street. In the park the plane trees turn and shed, and by late October the paths are carpeted with leaves. When the clocks go back at the end of the month, the evenings close in within a week.
It is also the season when the street's own history feels closest. Dover Street was laid out in the 1680s and named after Henry Jermyn, Baron Dover, one of its developers, and the Arts Club, founded in 1863 with Dickens among its early members, still keeps its house here. On an autumn evening, with lit doorways and leaves in the gutter, it looks much as it must have to them. Albemarle Street runs parallel to the east and Berkeley Square lies just beyond its northern end.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Dover Street
Asked most often
Dover Street, asked and answered
Which month leaves the street at its quietest?
When do the daffodils come out in Green Park?
Are the Christmas lights worth a detour in December?
What is the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy?
Can we sit out in Green Park on a summer evening?
Does the street feel different once the clocks go back?
One zone either way
Next along from Dover Street
Last strip
Say a name and an hour
Write in with a length, a time and the zone you are staying in, and a name from the board comes back with a window attached. That is the whole of the arrangement.