Escorts in Strand and Aldwych, WC2R: who is close, and how soon
The Strand runs east from Charing Cross towards Fleet Street, and near its eastern end it divides round the Aldwych, a crescent cut through in the early twentieth century with Kingsway leading north from its middle. WC2R is the river side of the district, and around it lie two universities, the courts at the far end, a pair of high commissions on the crescent and a conference hall on the Embankment below. This is working London before it is anything else, and at six on a weekday a great many long days end within a few streets of here.
WC2R is home to none of the names on the board; the office looks first to the three in Covent Garden, a few streets north. For escorts in Strand and Aldwych, the evening is best planned from the point where the working day stops, and what follows takes that day from the courts to the river.
On the ground
Strand and Aldwych in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameWC2R 0EZ, WC2B 4BZ, WC2B 4DD, WC2R 1HA, WC2E 7AW, WC2H 9HB.
Nearest stations
Walking timeTemple, 3 minutes. Covent Garden, 5 minutes. Charing Cross, 5 minutes.
Getting there
WC2RTravel 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 Strand and Aldwych
Who works here
On the board in Strand and Aldwych
The six prints above are a first shortlist for Strand and Aldwych tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
The courts at the eastern end
Where the Strand becomes Fleet Street stand the Royal Courts of Justice, a great Victorian Gothic building of pale stone, pinnacles and arched windows that houses the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Across the road to the south lies the Temple, the Inner and Middle Temple, with barristers' chambers and gardens running down towards the river, and to the north Chancery Lane leads up to Lincoln's Inn.
Days here run to someone else's timetable: hearings, conferences in chambers, papers read on the train in and again on the way home. A visitor in town for a case can finish late and want an evening that asks nothing more of him, a proper dinner and company that is easy to talk to after hours of choosing every word with care.
Note 03
Two universities on one street
King's College London occupies a long stretch of the Strand beside Somerset House, and since the BBC World Service moved out of Bush House on the crescent, King's has taken that building over too. North of the Aldwych, round Houghton Street and the old Clare Market, stands the London School of Economics.
Between them they bring a constant flow of visiting academics, examiners and speakers, and both run evening lectures and public events. A day of seminars ends at much the same hour as a day in court, and the same pavements, the Aldwych and the Strand, carry both crowds towards the river and the restaurants.
Note 04
High commissions on the crescent
Two of the grandest buildings on the Aldwych are diplomatic. Australia House, at the eastern tip of the crescent, has been the Australian High Commission since it opened in 1918, and India House, a little way round, is the High Commission of India. Between them they bring official visitors, delegations and a steady round of receptions to the district.
For a visitor whose day has been spent on formal business, the crescent is a reminder that the evening need not be. A change of clothes, a walk to the river and a table where nobody is taking notes can be the whole of what is wanted.
Note 05
Conference days by the river
Below the Strand, on the Embankment, Savoy Place is the London home of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and one of the district's main conference venues, with meeting rooms that look out over the Thames. Somerset House, a short walk east, hosts exhibitions, fairs and events in its courtyard, and its river terrace looks straight over the water.
Both let out onto the river rather than onto a main road, which makes the end of a conference day unusually easy on the nerves. Step outside and Waterloo Bridge is right there, with the South Bank lit on the far side and the whole curve of the river in view.
Note 06
When the working day is done
The evening after a long day is best kept simple. Go back to the room and change, send the office the hour you will be free and the address, and let the district do the rest: a walk over Waterloo Bridge for the view both ways, dinner in Covent Garden or along the Strand, and the theatres on the Aldwych if there is still an appetite for a show.
Escorts in Strand and Aldwych suit exactly that kind of night: no ceremony, good conversation and nothing to organise. An hour or so separates the office's confirmation from her arrival, longer when the Strand clogs at curtain down, and the rates set out every length.
Note 07
A working dinner with company
Sometimes the evening is still work: a dinner with a client, a reception after a conference, an invitation addressed to two. A companion can be the guest you would rather not arrive without, dressed for the occasion and at ease in a room full of strangers, and at the table she is simply your guest.
Tell the office what the occasion is, where it is and how formal, in the first message. No hotel is told anything about the booking, and nothing about it follows you back to your desk in the morning.
Note 08
Around the working district
North up Kingsway, the legal quarter carries on into Holborn, with Lincoln's Inn and its Fields. Across Waterloo Bridge, Waterloo has the mainline station and the concert halls and theatres of the South Bank, and west along the Strand lie Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. Every hotel listed with this district sits on the Strand or round the crescent, in WC2R and WC2B, within easy reach of the courts and the conference rooms.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Strand and Aldwych
Asked most often
Strand and Aldwych, asked and answered
Can she come to a working dinner as my guest?
Is the Aldwych quiet once the offices empty?
Where does an evening start after a conference by the river?
Will anyone at the conference know?
One zone either way
Next along from Strand and Aldwych
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.