Escorts in the West End, W1 and WC2: who is close, and how soon
West End is a useful word and a vague one. It covers two enormous postcode areas, W1 and WC2, and inside them sit several districts that behave nothing like each other. A hotel described as West End might be four minutes from a theatre or twenty. So the first job of this page is to tell you which part you are actually in, because that answer changes the evening more than any other detail.
After that it does the usual work: the hotels with their postcodes, the stations, who on the board covers the theatres, and how a curtain time is handled. If you already know your district, go straight to Soho, Covent Garden, Mayfair or Marylebone. If you do not, read on. Figures are on the rates page and the zones page lists everywhere else we cover.
On the ground
West End in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW1B 4DY, WC2H 7DX, W1D 7DT, WC2R 0EZ, WC2N 4HX, W1B 1JA.
Nearest stations
Walking timePiccadilly Circus, 2 minutes. Leicester Square, 3 minutes. Covent Garden, 6 minutes.
Getting there
W1, WC2Travel 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 West End
Who works here
On the board in West End
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for West End tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
What the umbrella actually contains
Going roughly west to east: Mayfair and Marylebone occupy the W1 end and are residential in character, quiet after nine and built around dinner. Soho sits in the middle, W1D and W1F, and is the only part that genuinely runs late. Covent Garden and the theatre streets are WC2, compact and ticket driven. Between them, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and the bottom of Regent Street are the parts most visitors picture and the parts almost nobody eats in.
The practical test is simple. If your hotel is north of Oxford Street you are not really in the West End at all. If it is between Regent Street and Charing Cross Road you are in the middle of it and everything is walkable. If it is on the Strand you are at the eastern edge and the theatres are closer to you than the shops.
Note 03
Hotels across the two postcodes
One house sits on Regent Street at W1B 4DY, right on the line between the western and middle sections. WC2H 7DX is on Leicester Square and W1D 7DT is a few minutes north in Soho. At the eastern edge, WC2R 0EZ is on the Strand and WC2N 4HX just off St Martin’s Lane. W1B 1JA, often listed as West End, is really at the top of Regent Street and is a walk rather than a stroll from the theatres.
Every one of them is a landmark for navigation. No hotel in W1 or WC2 has any arrangement with this office, and none is told anything about who is arriving. Where a lobby is busy at turnout time, which several of these are, the office will simply suggest she goes straight up.
Note 04
Stations, and the ones to avoid at ten
Piccadilly Circus is two minutes from the middle of the district on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines. Leicester Square is three minutes, Northern and Piccadilly. Covent Garden station is six minutes east on the Piccadilly line and is the one that backs up badly when the theatres empty.
Between about half past ten and eleven the pavements around Leicester Square and Shaftesbury Avenue are solid with people leaving shows. If your evening finishes in that window, walking two streets before looking for a taxi will save more time than waiting for one outside the theatre. Companions who work this zone know that and will steer you.
Note 05
Curtain times, and how the office handles them
Put the curtain time in your first message. It sets everything: whether dinner is before or after, how long the booking should be, and where she meets you. Most theatre evenings here work better with supper afterwards than dinner before, because a six o'clock dinner is a rushed dinner and a half past ten supper is one of the pleasures of the district.
Three hours at £700 covers a show and a late table comfortably. A dinner date at £900 is the shape when the evening starts before the curtain and runs well past it. The office confirms the hours in writing before anybody sets off, and the fee goes to her in person when she arrives.
Note 06
Who books the umbrella rather than a district
First time visitors, who have booked a hotel described as West End and are not sure what that means. People with a ticket and no other plan. Guests who want to be inside walking distance of everything and do not much mind which street it happens on.
The office is happy to work from that. Give it the hotel name and the hour and it will tell you which district you are actually in, which companions are nearest, and what is realistic for the evening you have described.
Note 07
Who covers W1 and WC2
Roxi is the name attached to this zone. She sees everything that opens, will tell you which shows are worth the money and which are coasting on a name, and wants supper at half past ten rather than dinner at six. She lives in Belgravia, so the office builds the run across town into the booking properly.
From inside the umbrella, Jasmin, Molly and Tiffany live in Soho and are the nearest names to anywhere between Regent Street and Charing Cross Road. Karolina, Nancy and Tina live in Covent Garden and know the theatre streets. Luna and Samanta come from the Mayfair end. The who is free page says who is available before you commit to a night.
Note 08
The districts inside and beside it
Soho is the late half, Covent Garden the ticket half, Mayfair the quiet western end, and Marylebone sits just over Oxford Street with its own separate character. Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street itself sit under the same umbrella, though people cross them on the way to an evening far more often than they spend one there.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for West End
Asked most often
West End, asked and answered
Is the West End a real district?
My hotel says West End. Which district am I in?
Dinner before the show or supper after?
How long should a theatre evening be?
How is the fee handled?
One zone either way
Next along from West End
escorts in Central London
W1, WC2, SW1Same ladder, same honest hour, the wider district this one sits in.
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.