Escorts in Hyde Park, W2 and W1K: who is close, and how soon
Hyde Park is Crown land. It is one of the eight Royal Parks, run by The Royal Parks charity under regulations of its own, watched over by a dedicated Metropolitan Police unit, and open from five in the morning until midnight. Round its railings stands some of the most watchful property in London: the hotel frontages of Park Lane on the east, the stucco terraces and mansion flats of the Bayswater Road on the north, the embassies and apartment buildings of Knightsbridge on the south. For escorts in Hyde Park, and for anyone who books one to a room on its edge, discretion is simply the local manner.
No name on the board lives in a park, naturally, but three live in Knightsbridge on its south side, three in Mayfair just behind Park Lane, and three in Paddington to the north. Wherever on its edge you are staying, she is usually with you about an hour after the office confirms, longer in heavy traffic, and every length is set out on the rates.
On the ground
Hyde Park in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW2 2TY, W2 4RJ, W1K 1QA, SW1X 7LA, SW1X 7TA, W1H 7DL.
Nearest stations
Walking timeLancaster Gate, 2 minutes. Marble Arch, 3 minutes. Hyde Park Corner, 3 minutes. Knightsbridge, 5 minutes.
Getting there
W2, 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 Hyde Park
Who works here
On the board in Hyde Park
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Hyde Park tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Three edges, three manners
Each side of the park keeps its own tone. Park Lane, on the east, is the grand frontage: big hotels behind porticoes, cars drawing in and out, lobbies built to be seen in. On a street like that the discreet thing is to be ordinary, and someone crossing a lobby at an even pace, dressed for dinner, looks like every other guest on the way up.
The Bayswater Road, on the north, is quieter and more residential: the long stucco terrace of Hyde Park Gardens, mansion blocks, smaller hotels, and front doors with bells rather than doormen. Knightsbridge, on the south, is the most guarded of the three, with embassy buildings at Albert Gate, the French among them, and apartment buildings where a front desk stands between the pavement and the lifts. Hyde Park escorts arrive to all three the same way, but it helps to know which one you are asking her to.
Note 03
What to send, and when
The office needs very little, and what it needs is what keeps an arrival quiet: a first name, the hotel or address and, once the booking is confirmed, the full name the room is held under and the room number. With those she goes straight up, like any guest who knows where she is going, and no front desk has to be asked for anything.
Keep the room number to yourself until the booking is confirmed; the office asks for it then and not before. If you would rather she did not cross a lobby at all, say so in your message and she will wait downstairs, with a book, until you come down. At a private address the flat number and the buzzer do the same work.
No hotel on the park, or anywhere else, has any arrangement with this office. Nothing is sent ahead and no hotel is told anything, which is exactly as it should be.
Note 04
Out in the park together
A walk in Hyde Park is the most public thing two people can do here, and one of the most private. There are pairs on its paths at almost any hour the gates are open, walking dogs, walking off dinner, talking on the benches along the Serpentine, and two more at the same easy pace draw no attention at all.
The one corner run on the opposite principle is Speakers' Corner, by Marble Arch, where anyone may stand up and address whoever will listen; it is the only spot in the park where drawing a crowd is the point. Elsewhere the manners are the plain ones of a Royal Park: keep to the main paths after dark, leave the riders on Rotten Row their sand, and remember that the gates shut at midnight.
Note 05
Buildings that mind their doors
Private addresses round the park run from a flat above a shop to a block with a staffed desk between the street and the lifts, and the manners follow the building. Where there is a desk, tell whoever keeps it that you are expecting a guest, exactly as you would for a friend coming to dinner; it is the ordinary courtesy of such buildings and it lets her walk in without explaining herself.
Where there is a buzzer and a column of names, send the flat number and the name on the bell. Where the building is one of the old stucco houses on the north side, cut into flats, say which door and which floor, so nobody is left on the steps under a street lamp. None of it is complicated, and all of it lets her arrive as what she is that evening: your guest.
Note 06
Leaving as quietly as she came
The end of an evening deserves the same care as the start, and here it takes very little. Her fee changed hands when she arrived, in person and for the hours agreed, so there is no moment of business at the door when she goes; she leaves as your guest, the way she came in.
What the office keeps afterwards is just as brief: a first name, the hotel or address and the booking details, held for as long as the booking needs them and a short while after, and never shared. Nothing about you goes into a web address, and no message from this board will ask for a photograph of you or an identity document.
The park's northern edge, with its gates and its water, belongs to Lancaster Gate; for who can come tonight, who is free keeps the week's names.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Hyde Park
Asked most often
Hyde Park, asked and answered
Should I tell the hotel I am expecting someone?
How will she be dressed when she crosses the lobby?
Is it discreet to walk together in the park?
What if I run into a colleague downstairs?
What does the office keep once the evening is over?
My building has a staffed desk. What should I do?
One zone either way
Next along from Hyde Park
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.