Escorts in Westminster, SW1A and SW1P: who is close, and how soon
What is actually open in Westminster after ten? Less than the floodlights promise. The Palace glows over the river and the four clock faces stay lit all night, but the offices behind them empty early, the lunchtime stalls of Strutton Ground were packed away hours ago, and the streets of SW1P settle into the hush of a residential parish. What the district keeps after dark is the river, the bells and a scattering of late lights, and an evening with Westminster escorts goes best when it is built on those rather than on a hunt for a bar. Nobody on the board lives inside SW1A or SW1P, so whoever comes crosses in from a zone nearby, and the office names her in its reply.
On the ground
Westminster in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameSW1H 0BH, SW1H 0QW, SW1A 2EJ, SW1A 2BD, SE1 7UT.
Nearest stations
Walking timeWestminster, 1 minute. St James's Park, 4 minutes. Embankment, 8 minutes.
Getting there
SW1A, SW1PTravel 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 Westminster
Who works here
On the board in Westminster
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Westminster tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
A lantern above the clock
Look above the clock faces, near the top of the tower, and on some nights there is one more light: a lantern that burns while either House is still sitting after dark. It is the Ayrton Light, named after the Victorian minister Acton Smee Ayrton, and it remains the simplest signal in the district. If it is lit at ten, the Palace is still working, and so is everyone who works in it.
That changes the feel of the streets. On a sitting night Parliament Square keeps a thin crowd of staff, reporters and waiting cars, and the quarter chimes cut across the traffic every fifteen minutes. On a night when the lantern is dark, the same square can be close to empty before midnight, and the Great Bell striking the hour is the loudest thing in it.
Note 03
When the division bells ring
Around the Palace, a few pubs and dining rooms still have a division bell on the wall. When a vote is called it rings, and members have eight minutes to get back inside before the doors of the lobbies are locked. On a late night those bells set the rhythm of the whole quarter: a sentence stops halfway, coats go on, and a little later the same tables fill again.
When the last vote is done the building empties at once, and for anyone here on parliamentary business it is the end of the sitting, not the clock, that decides when the evening can begin. Moving a start time is routine for the office, so book the length you want and send one line once the House has risen.
Note 04
The river side of the night
The best of Westminster after dark is along the water. At the foot of Westminster Bridge, Thomas Thornycroft's bronze Boudicca rides her chariot high above the traffic, and from there the Victoria Embankment runs north under cast-iron lamp standards with fish coiled round their bases. These are the dolphin lamps, and they have lined the river wall since the embankment was finished in 1870.
Cross the bridge and the view turns round. From the Lambeth bank the whole river front of the Palace is lit from end to end, and the path in front of St Thomas' Hospital is where it is seen whole. Westminster Bridge is painted the green of the Commons benches and Lambeth Bridge, upstream, the red of the Lords, and a loop over one and back by the other is the quiet way to close a night here.
Note 05
What stays lit, and what goes dark
Westminster has few late places of its own. Its pubs keep ordinary hours, and the cafés built for the working lunch, in Strutton Ground and along Victoria Street, are shut long before dark. Behind the Abbey the streets of SW1P are houses and mansion flats, and by eleven there is hardly anyone about but residents walking home.
For a later table the evening has to travel a little, north towards the theatres or over the river, and that short journey is part of the night rather than a detour from it. The one thing the district does better than anywhere in London is the walk back: the chimes, the empty square, the lit stone and the water.
Note 06
How the night ends here
With so little open, an evening here turns indoors sooner than it would in Soho, and the quiet is much of the appeal. She comes to your room or your address and crosses the lobby like any other guest; if you would rather she did not cross a lobby at all, say so and she waits downstairs until you come down.
Expect her roughly an hour from the office's confirmation, longer when the evening traffic is heavy, with her own timing sent to the chat as she leaves, and every length with its figure on the rates. If the night wants to run past the booked hours, ask the office before they are up: when she is free to stay it is confirmed in writing, and when she is not, the bell will already have told you the time.
Note 07
Neighbours that stay up later
North across the park, St James's keeps its clubs and a few late rooms. At the top of the long road north from the Palace, Charing Cross opens into the theatres, and beyond it the West End is where London stays awake. Over the bridge, Waterloo and the South Bank keep their riverside crowds after the theatres and concert halls there let out.
South along the river, Pimlico is quieter even than SW1P, and it is home to two names on the board, Lucy and Roxi.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Westminster
Asked most often
Westminster, asked and answered
What is the lantern above the clock faces?
Is Westminster quieter when Parliament is in recess?
Is the Embankment pleasant after dark?
Do the bells in the clock tower keep going through the night?
Why do some pubs here have a bell on the wall?
One zone either way
Next along from Westminster
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.