Escorts in Fitzrovia, W1T: who is close, and how soon
Fitzrovia's restaurants are older than its name. The streets north of Oxford Street were feeding lodgers, painters and office clerks with French, Italian and German cooking by the early years of the twentieth century, while the word Fitzrovia itself was not in print until about 1940, coined for the crowd that drank in the pubs round Rathbone Place.
That order still shows on the ground. There is no high street here; the eating is spread over a grid of narrow roads between Great Portland Street and Tottenham Court Road, and each has its own character, from the lunchtime counters to the long dinner rooms. For Fitzrovia escorts the choice of street is half the planning of the evening, so the sections below go street by street, as a local would give directions to a table.
On the ground
Fitzrovia in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1T 1RJ, W1T 3NP, W1T 3NG, W1T 1PG, W1B 1JA.
Nearest stations
Walking timeGoodge Street, 3 minutes. Tottenham Court Road, 6 minutes. Oxford Circus, 7 minutes.
Getting there
W1TTravel 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 Fitzrovia
Who works here
On the board in Fitzrovia
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Fitzrovia tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Cooks who came from abroad
The first restaurants here were run by incomers. French, Italian and German families settled in these streets through the nineteenth century, and by the early twentieth the district was known as the place in London to eat continental food well without paying West End prices. Greek and Cypriot families later added their own kitchens.
The habit outlived the families. Fitzrovia still eats from a map of other countries, with Italian, Japanese, Greek, Spanish and French cooking often a few doors apart, and very little of it is dressed up for visitors.
Note 03
Goodge Street, the everyday one
Goodge Street is where Fitzrovia eats on a weekday. It runs west from Tottenham Court Road and carries on as Mortimer Street, lined with sandwich counters, noodle bars, cafés and a couple of old pubs, and it is at its fullest when the offices break for lunch.
Off its southern side, Charlotte Place is a narrow paved lane of small cafés, quiet enough to hear a conversation. It is the sort of spot for a coffee in the late afternoon, before a day of meetings turns into an evening.
Note 04
Charlotte Street, and the streets beside it
Charlotte Street is the one everybody has heard of, a long run of dining rooms with tables out on the pavement whenever the weather allows. It is also the busiest, and a table on one of the parallel streets is often the better choice for an evening that is mostly talk.
Whitfield Street runs alongside it to the east, Rathbone Street and the lanes towards Oxford Street to the west, and the rooms along them tend to be smaller, with fewer tables to shout across. Walking from one to another takes no time at all, which makes it easy to have a drink on one street and dinner on the next.
Note 05
Great Titchfield Street and the western edge
West of Cleveland Street the district changes pace. Great Titchfield Street and the lanes around it hold independent cafés, wine bars and small kitchens that serve the studios and agencies nearby, and by evening they are among the calmer tables in W1.
A few streets further west, Great Portland Street marks the edge of Fitzrovia. Beyond it lies Marylebone, a different set of restaurants with different habits, and the walk between the two districts is part of the pleasure on a dry night.
Note 06
Pubs with long memories
Fitzrovia's reputation was made in its pubs as much as its restaurants. From the 1920s into the 1950s painters, poets and journalists drank their way round Rathbone Place and Charlotte Street, Dylan Thomas and George Orwell among them, and several of the Victorian pub fronts they knew are still trading.
They make a sound first stop before dinner: an early drink somewhere with carved wood and etched glass, a table booked a few streets away, and no need for a taxi between the two.
Note 07
The restaurant that turned
For about fifteen years the district had a dining room above everything else in London. When the Post Office Tower opened in the mid-1960s, a restaurant near the top revolved slowly, so that diners saw the whole city go past in the course of one meal.
It closed to the public around 1980, and the tower, now the BT Tower, has been a landmark to steer by rather than a place to eat ever since. From most streets in W1T it shows where you are in relation to it, which is useful on the walk back from a late table.
Note 08
A table in W1T, and the board
W1T is not home to anyone on the board. Soho, straight across Oxford Street, is home to three of them, and Marylebone, beyond Great Portland Street, to two more, so escorts in Fitzrovia are not waiting on anyone crossing the whole of London. Tell the office the street, the hour and how long the evening should run; count on an hour or so between its yes and her arrival, more when Oxford Street crawls, with her time sent through as she leaves and the ladder of lengths on the rates.
If the evening wanders, Tottenham Court Road forms the eastern edge, Bloomsbury lies beyond it, and Great Portland Street closes the district to the west.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Fitzrovia
Asked most often
Fitzrovia, asked and answered
Is Fitzrovia better for lunch or for dinner?
Where does Fitzrovia's eating give way to Soho's?
Is there a room quiet enough for a long conversation?
Can we eat outside on a warm evening?
Was there really a restaurant at the top of the tower?
Which pubs did the writers use?
One zone either way
Next along from Fitzrovia
Tottenham Court Road hotels
W1T, WC1Same ladder, same honest hour, one zone further across the map.
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.