Belgravia after dark, SW1X and SW1W: an escort to your hotel, flat or house

Hotels on the Belgravia side of Hyde Park Corner

Six hotels account for most Belgravia hotel requests. They are listed as landmarks, not associates, and she enters each one as a private visitor with no introduction from us.

The Goring on Beeston Place, SW1W 0JW, run by the same family for more than a century, with a lawn behind it that very few London hotels can match. The Lanesborough, SW1X 7TA, the Regency house facing Hyde Park Corner, which assigns a butler to each of its rooms. The Peninsula London, SW1X 7HJ, on Grosvenor Place, the newest of the group. The Berkeley on Wilton Place, SW1X 7RL, which straddles the border and also appears on our Knightsbridge page. The Rubens at the Palace, SW1W 0PS, looking across at the Royal Mews, and Hotel 41, a very small hotel in the upper floors of the same building.

Those last two share a postcode, so give the desk the exact hotel name. It saves her a question at the wrong reception.

Four stations, all on foot

Victoria is the big one, a main line terminus with three Underground lines beneath it, about 5 minutes from the Goring and the Rubens. From the western end of Eaton Square, Sloane Square station takes roughly 6 minutes to reach. Belgrave Square is about 7 minutes from Hyde Park Corner, and the Wilton Place side about 8 minutes from Knightsbridge station.

Victoria matters beyond the evening itself. The Gatwick Express leaves from there, and many guests who book in Belgravia are one train away from an early flight.

Arriving at a private house

Houses need a little more information than hotels, and none of it is complicated. Send the full address, including whether the house faces the square or the mews, and the name on the bell or the door. If a porter or a housekeeper is on duty, say whether she should give your name at the door or whether you would rather open it yourself. The desk passes all of it to her before she sets out.

The checks match a hotel visit: your full name and the address, confirmed once on WhatsApp. She arrives by car to the door, which in the Belgravia squares is almost always quiet enough to be unremarkable. What you pay goes straight into her hand at the door, and to nobody else.

Timing in a quiet postcode

Belgravia is central, and a confirmed booking is usually at your door within the hour. The squares carry almost no through traffic after dark, so the only slow stretches are the approaches: Hyde Park Corner at the evening peak, and Buckingham Palace Road when a ceremony or a state visit closes the Mall. For the longer lengths, a four hour dinner or the overnight, a message in the afternoon or the day before gives the widest choice of companion.

Who books in SW1X and SW1W

Residents and long term tenants, first. People renting a house for a few months who would rather host than go out. Then hotel guests at the Goring or the Lanesborough, in town for a family occasion, a gallery opening or a week of appointments. And travellers who chose Belgravia because Victoria is five minutes away. Dinner at home, two or three hours long, is the typical Belgravia request.

A Belgravia evening, told plainly

A resident on Chester Square writes at five: dinner at home, cooked by a caterer, from eight until eleven. She arrives by car at two minutes to eight and rings the bell. They begin with a drink in the drawing room, eat at a table laid for two, and afterwards stroll across to the Grenadier, the old pub hidden in Wilton Row, for a nightcap by the fire. By eleven she is on her way, and the square is as still as it was when she arrived.

The rota close by

Lea, Patricia and Violetta are based in Belgravia itself. Just south, in Pimlico, Lucy and Roxi are a few minutes away. Every companion on the full list comes here at the same rates, so the nearest one is simply the quickest, never the only choice.

Next along from Belgravia

Across Sloane Street lies Knightsbridge with its larger hotels. Hyde Park Corner opens onto Mayfair. West past Sloane Square, South Kensington begins at the museums. And from Victoria the fast train runs to the Gatwick airport hotels in about half an hour, where airport bookings follow their own three hour rule.