Escorts in Grosvenor Square, W1K: who is close, and how soon
At nine on a June evening the sun has already dropped behind the western side of Grosvenor Square, yet the sky stays pale for most of another hour, and the garden at the centre, lawns, paths and tall plane trees, is at its most generous: a green room in the middle of Mayfair that asks nothing of anyone crossing it. In December the same garden is dark before five, and the green becomes something passed on the way to dinner rather than lingered in.
Green is the thread through everything below: the square's own garden, the smaller gardens a few streets off and the great park beyond Park Lane, and how each fits an evening with one of the escorts in Grosvenor Square. Mayfair is home to three names on the board, and her journey generally takes about an hour from the office's go-ahead, longer when rush hour clogs Oxford Street, with her precise time given in the chat and the lengths on the rates.
On the ground
Grosvenor Square in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1K 2HP, W1K 6TF, W1K 4HR, W1K 2AL, W1K 7TN.
Nearest stations
Walking timeBond Street, 4 minutes. Marble Arch, 6 minutes. Green Park, 10 minutes.
Getting there
W1KTravel 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 Grosvenor Square
Who works here
On the board in Grosvenor Square
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Grosvenor Square tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
The garden at the centre
Grosvenor Square was laid out in the 1720s, and its central garden, about six acres of it, makes it the second largest square in London after Lincoln's Inn Fields. That size is what sets it apart from the tight garden squares elsewhere in the West End: there is room for a proper circuit, lawns wide enough to feel open, and plane trees tall enough to shade the paths by midsummer. It is a public garden rather than a residents' enclosure, which is why it works as a crossing between one side of Mayfair and the other as much as a place to stop.
Note 03
Memorials among the trees
The garden carries the square's long connection with the United States quietly. A statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt stands in it, and a small memorial garden remembers those who died on 11 September 2001, carrying the words 'Grief is the price we pay for love'. Neither makes the square solemn. They are places to slow down on a circuit of the lawns, and the memorial garden in particular is a corner where conversation drops without anyone asking it to.
Note 04
Brown Hart Gardens, a garden on a roof
Up Duke Street from the north side of the square is one of the stranger green spaces in London. Brown Hart Gardens is a raised, paved terrace built on top of an electricity substation, reached by steps from the street, with planting and seats laid out over the machinery beneath. It stands above the traffic rather than beside it, which makes it a good place for a few minutes of air before dinner in the streets towards Bond Street.
Note 05
Mount Street Gardens, to the south
South of the square, reached by South Audley Street, lies Mount Street Gardens, a small public garden hidden behind the buildings of Mount Street and South Audley Street. Tall planes shade it, and its paths are lined with benches, many carrying small plaques in memory of people who loved the place. Two churches open onto it: the Grosvenor Chapel on one side and the Jesuit church of Farm Street on the other.
It is one of the quietest green spaces in this part of Mayfair and the one for sitting rather than walking. Reached from the square and back again, it makes a short loop that suits the hour before a table on Mount Street.
Note 06
West to Hyde Park
For a longer walk, Upper Brook Street leaves the square heading west and runs straight to Park Lane, arriving opposite Brook Gate. Across the road lies Hyde Park, where the paths run out under the trees towards open grass and the water beyond. On a light summer evening the walk from the square's garden to the park's is one green thread, broken only by a single street and a crossing; on a dark winter one it is better saved for the morning. Park Lane is the frontier between the two.
Note 07
Why the trees are planes
Most of the big trees in the square, and in the gardens round it, are London planes. The tree was planted across the city because it copes with dirty air: its bark flakes away in patches, leaving the trunk mottled cream and olive, and its broad, glossy leaves are rinsed clean by rain. In the square it gives the garden its summer ceiling, and when the leaves drop in autumn the pale trunks make the lawns look lit even on a grey afternoon.
Note 08
Fitting the green into an evening
The simplest plan uses the square as the first act. In the light months a circuit of the garden, and perhaps a detour to one of the smaller gardens, takes the edge off a long day before dinner; from late autumn to early spring, when the light has gone by the time anyone is free, the green works best as a view from a window or a short crossing on lit paths. Either way, for Grosvenor Square escorts and the people they keep company with here, the square is where things can begin without anybody needing a plan, and the rest follows from the first table.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Grosvenor Square
Asked most often
Grosvenor Square, asked and answered
Which garden near the square is best for sitting down?
What is the garden built over a substation?
Is Upper Brook Street the way through to the great park?
Does the square's garden suit a summer evening before dinner?
Why do the trees in the square shed their bark?
One zone either way
Next along from Grosvenor Square
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.