Escorts in Great Portland Street, W1W: who is close, and how soon
A little after six on a weekday evening, a newcomer climbing out of Great Portland Street station could be forgiven for asking where the street has gone. The station stands at the very top of it, on the broad, loud junction of the Marylebone and Euston Roads, and the street itself runs away south towards Oxford Street, lined with offices whose lights are going off one floor at a time.
It is an easy district to misread and a quick one to learn. For Great Portland Street escorts, and for anyone on a first trip to London who finds himself staying here, a handful of facts turn the grid into familiar ground within an evening: which Portland is which, what runs under the road, and what lies a short walk away in each direction.
On the ground
Great Portland Street in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1B 1JA, NW1 3UP, W1B 2QS, W1T 3NP.
Nearest stations
Walking timeGreat Portland Street, 1 minute. Regent's Park, 3 minutes. Oxford Circus, 7 minutes.
Getting there
W1WTravel 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 Great Portland Street
Who works here
On the board in Great Portland Street
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Great Portland Street tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
The station is at the top
Great Portland Street is a long, straight working street of offices, showrooms and clinics, running from Oxford Street north to the Marylebone Road. The station that carries its name sits at the northern end, on an island of its own in the traffic, so a first-time visitor leaves the platforms at the edge of W1W rather than in the middle of it.
Walk south and the grid opens up: long streets running north to south, crossed at short intervals by quieter ones running east to west. Keep the traffic of the main road at your back and you are heading towards the shops; keep it in front of you and you are heading for the park.
Note 03
Two Portlands, and the dukes behind both
Newcomers mix up Great Portland Street and Portland Place, and no wonder. Both are named after the Dukes of Portland, who inherited this stretch of the old Harley estate, and the two run north to south, parallel and a short way apart.
Portland Place, to the west, is the grand one. The Adam brothers laid it out in the 1770s, and it is unusually wide because the owner of a house at its southern end insisted that his view to the north should never be blocked. Great Portland Street is the working one, narrower and busier by day, and it is the one to walk when you want a coffee rather than a view.
Note 04
Standing on the first underground railway
The line under your feet is the oldest of its kind anywhere. When the Metropolitan Railway opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon, it was the first underground railway in the world, and this was one of its original stations, then called Portland Road. It took its present name in 1917, and the building you see above ground is a later replacement.
Today the station serves the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines, with the Bakerloo a short walk west at Regent's Park, which is worth knowing on a first visit because it is the direct line down to the West End theatres and the river.
Note 05
The road along the top
The traffic roaring past the station follows London's first bypass. The New Road was cut across open fields in 1756, so that cattle and carts heading for the City could avoid forcing their way down Oxford Street, and for decades it marked the northern edge of built-up London.
It survives as the Marylebone Road, the Euston Road and, further east, Pentonville Road. Crossing it here, at the lights and with patience, is the first local skill a visitor learns, because everything north of it, the park included, is on the far side.
Note 06
Within a short walk, whichever way you turn
North, across the road and past Park Square, is Regent's Park, the best free thing within reach of the station at any time of year. West, beyond Portland Place, the village streets and high street of Marylebone begin. East is Fitzrovia, with the BT Tower standing over it as a landmark to steer by, and south, at the bottom of the street, the crossing at Oxford Circus and the shops.
Along the Marylebone Road to the west stands Madame Tussauds, the waxworks that sits on many a first-time list. It is easy to see in a morning, which leaves the rest of the day free for the park.
Note 07
Reading the street after dark
By early evening most of the offices in W1W have emptied, and the side streets go quiet in a way that surprises anyone used to Soho. That is not a sign that nothing is open; the tables are simply spread about, on Great Portland Street itself, on the streets running east into Fitzrovia and west across Portland Place.
For getting about, a black cab with its yellow light on is free to hail, the stations on the Marylebone Road are the easiest landmarks, and on Underground escalators Londoners stand on the right and walk on the left. Learn those three and the city stops feeling foreign surprisingly fast.
Note 08
A first booking, plainly
Not one of the twenty eight lives in W1W. The two nearest live in Marylebone, just across Portland Place, and three more in Soho, south of Oxford Street, so escorts in Great Portland Street are drawn from close by. A first booking is a short exchange of messages: the date, the hour, the length and the hotel or district, then one written line back from the office naming her, the start time, the length and the figure, all set out step by step on the booking page.
Expect her an hour or more after that line arrives, later when the Euston Road is at its worst, with the chat telling you her time once she is on her way and the rates giving each length.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Great Portland Street
Asked most often
Great Portland Street, asked and answered
Which way is Regent's Park from the station?
Why are there two streets called Portland?
Is the Underground here really that old?
What should a first-time visitor see first around here?
Where can a newcomer eat near the station?
One zone either way
Next along from Great Portland 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.