Laura, with one bag always half packed
Riding boots, ski stories and the best counter seat for small plates in Soho.
- Age
- 25
- Height
- 169 cm
- Hair
- long, sun-kissed light brown
- Eyes
- green
- Build
- athletic
- Languages
- English
- Based in
- Paddington
- Visits
- Hotels and residences
Her own photos, matched to her in person before they went up. Photo Policy
On Laura
- Paddington, W2
- Riding, skiing, Italy
- Green eyes that people remember
- Athletic build at 169 cm
- Light brown hair, sun-lightened and long
Based in Paddington, and happy to travel to any hotel in town.
Paddington suits Laura because every good trip seems to start there. The Heathrow Express leaves every fifteen minutes, the park is a canter away, and her bags are half packed at the best of times: skis in winter, a linen dress for Italy in summer, riding boots all year round. Adventurous and warm, she brings a little of that departure lounge energy to every evening, the sense that something good is about to happen.
Green eyes are the first thing people mention afterwards, then the hair, long and light brown and lightened by sun and snow. She is athletic at 169 cm and dresses for a garden party even in the city, a floral dress, a light jacket, flat shoes in the bag for later. In her mid twenties, she rides at the Hyde Park Stables on Bathurst Mews when she can, talks of the Dolomites as if they were family, and her English comes quickly, with a great deal of laughter.
An evening with Laura has a destination. Her favourite is Bocca di Lupo on Archer Street in Soho, a long marble counter and small plates from every corner of Italy, where she orders for the table and names the region each dish comes from. Then a slow cab back past Marble Arch to your hotel, windows down if the weather allows, and a nightcap while she plans your next holiday for you, whether you asked or not.
Laura lives in Paddington, which makes her quick to the W2 hotels and a natural choice for guests flying out of Heathrow. She takes same day requests from midday; send Henrietta the time and the hotel.
Laura, after hours
The table is a counter, which she prefers: Laura likes to watch the kitchen. At Bocca di Lupo she orders five small plates before you have finished taking off your coat, each from a different part of Italy, and she tells you which town she ate the original in and what the weather was doing that day. She is funny about her own disasters, the ski lift she missed, the horse that refused a gate in front of an audience. She sets a brisk, cheerful tempo, and the evening follows it. Afterwards, a cab west along Oxford Street, Marble Arch lit up and the park dark beside Bayswater Road, and the doorman at your hotel holding the door. Upstairs she finds the view first, then the chair nearest the window, and asks where you are flying next.
Laura, answering
3 things guests tend to ask before booking, answered in Laura's own words.
The empty train at dawn. You get the whole carriage and a coffee, and the day feels like yours before anyone else is awake.
Only if you let me. I ask what you do not eat, then I choose. Nobody has complained yet, although one guest did ask for a second dessert.
The lakes in late September, when the crowds have gone home. Take a slow boat, eat lunch late, and leave your phone in the hotel.
Hours and rates
Laura takes same day bookings from noon. Heathrow hotel visits carry the three hour minimum at £700 including travel, and the train from Paddington puts her at the terminals quickly.
Whichever length you pick, you settle the figure with Laura face to face once she is with you. Her taxi to a Zone 1 or Zone 2 address is already priced in.
Platforms near her base- PaddingtonBakerloo, Circle, District, Hammersmith and City, Elizabeth line, National Rail, Heathrow Express1min
- Edgware RoadBakerloo, Circle, District, Hammersmith and City7min
- Lancaster GateCentral8min
Notes on Laura
No notes on file for Laura yet, and the desk will never invent one. Guests add a note only once a booking has actually taken place; it shows nothing but their first name and when it was written, and Henrietta reads every one before it is posted.
Should Laura want a note about her withdrawn, it comes down the same day.
Also on the rota
Book Laura
The message opens with Laura already named. Add the date, the length and your hotel, and the desk sends back the minute she will knock.