Escorts in W1K and W1J, Mayfair: who is close, and how soon
Nine o'clock in a cobbled mews in W1K. A row of painted doors where coachmen once stabled the horses, a lamp over each step, a car ticking as it cools, and above the old garages the lit windows of kitchens and sitting rooms. The big houses these mews were built to serve stand just round the corner, and hardly a sound from them carries back. This is the Mayfair a hotel guest seldom sees: two postcodes where people actually live, in mews houses, mansion flats over shops and Georgian terraces, and where escorts in W1K and W1J are as naturally asked to a private door as to any suite. Three names on the board live here.
On the ground
W1K and W1J in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1K 4HR, W1K 1QA, W1K 2AL, W1J 9BR, W1J 8LT.
Nearest stations
Walking timeGreen Park, 4 minutes. Bond Street, 5 minutes. Hyde Park Corner, 7 minutes.
Getting there
W1K, W1JTravel 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 W1K and W1J
Who works here
On the board in W1K and W1J
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for W1K and W1J tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
One estate, three kinds of home
Much of W1K has belonged to one family since 1677, when Mary Davies, heiress to the land, married Sir Thomas Grosvenor; Davies Street still carries her name. The estate rebuilt its streets in waves, and the result is three kinds of home. The grand houses on the squares, many of them turned into offices in the last century and some turned back again. The mews behind them, stables and coach houses that are now small houses with a front door on the cobbles. And the mansion flats: Mount Street was rebuilt in red brick and pink terracotta in the 1880s and 1890s, with shops at pavement level and apartments above, reached by their own doors between the shopfronts.
W1J grew differently. Its heart is Shepherd Market, laid out by Edward Shepherd in the eighteenth century on the ground where the May Fair itself was held, the fair that gave the district its name, and it is still a warren of small streets with flats over the pubs and shops. Around it run the Georgian terraces of Charles Street, Queen Street and Hertford Street, tall narrow houses whose front doors open straight onto the pavement.
Note 03
A visit to a private address
For W1K and W1J escorts, a private door is booked exactly as a hotel room is, with the flat and the bell standing in for a room number when everything is agreed. In a mews, say which door: the numbers are small and hard to read after dark, and a word about the colour of the paint saves standing about on the cobbles. In a mansion block with a porter's desk, treat her as you would any guest you are expecting. If you would rather she rang no bell at all, say so and meet her outside.
Her journey generally runs to around an hour, counted from the office's yes, longer in the evening rush; the chat tells you precisely when, and the rates hold every length. Addresses round Grosvenor Square, Berkeley Square and along Park Lane are arranged the same way.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for W1K and W1J
Asked most often
W1K and W1J, asked and answered
Our mews house has no bell. What should the office be told?
Why are there so many flats above the shops on Mount Street?
Do people really live in Shepherd Market?
One zone either way
Next along from W1K and W1J
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.