Soho hotel rooms, W1D and W1F: an escort for the hours after the curtain comes down

Five small hotels and a large one

Soho hotels are named here for orientation only. None of them works with us in any way, and she arrives exactly as any guest's visitor would.

The Soho Hotel, W1D 3DH, tucked into Richmond Mews off Dean Street, with its own screening rooms. Ham Yard Hotel, W1D 7DT, set around a tree lined yard near Piccadilly Circus, with a 1950s bowling alley in the basement. Dean Street Townhouse, W1D 3SE, a Georgian house with a dining room at street level that stays busy until late. Hazlitt's on Frith Street, W1D 3JA, three old houses joined together, panelled rooms and a small honesty bar in the library. Broadwick Soho, W1F 8HT, the newest, on Broadwick Street near the Berwick Street market. And the large one, The Londoner, WC2H 7DX, facing Leicester Square on the southern edge.

Several of these have no grand lobby at all. At Hazlitt's in particular the front door leads almost straight to the stairs, so tell the desk whether you would like to be met or would rather she came directly to the room.

Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, Oxford Circus

Three stations ring the district. Tottenham Court Road, with the Elizabeth line running deep beneath it, is about 3 minutes from Soho Square. Leicester Square is roughly 4 minutes from the southern lanes and the Londoner. Oxford Circus, where three lines cross, is about 6 minutes from Broadwick Street and the western edge.

Those walking times are for you. Late bookings come by car, dropped at whichever corner the traffic allows.

Narrow streets, exact times

Soho's streets were laid out long before cars, and in the evening several of them move at walking pace or not at all. A companion's car usually stops at the nearest open corner and she walks the last minute, which the desk builds into the time it gives you. Inside Zone 1, that time is usually within the hour of confirmation.

The window to watch is ten until half past, when every theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue seems to let out at the same moment. If you want company straight after a show, book before you go in and name the time. Henrietta runs her quick check on WhatsApp, once only: surname, hotel, room. Then the arrival minute comes back. Her fee is yours to hand her in person, the moment she walks in.

Who fills the Soho rooms

Theatre visitors staying two or three nights. People in town for work at the production houses and agencies around Wardour Street, who finish late and want dinner with someone who is not a colleague. Guests who chose Soho precisely because it stays awake, and would like one evening that begins at eleven. Two hours at £500 is the common Soho booking, followed by the dinner length at £900 for those who want the show as well.

After the interval, a message

A guest at the Soho Hotel sees a play alone and, at the interval, writes to the desk: two hours, from a quarter to eleven, room number to follow. Back comes a name and an exact minute. The curtain comes down at twenty past ten, and he walks back through Soho Square past the crowds spilling out of the pubs. At 22:44 there is a knock. They go back down for a late plate in the hotel bar, then out to Bar Italia for a coffee under the neon, where Frith Street is still busy at midnight. At a quarter to one she heads home.

Three based in W1D

Jasmin, Molly and Tiffany all have their home district in Soho, which makes them the quickest answer to a late message from a Soho room. Every other name on the rota comes here too, at the same tariff, so pick on character first and distance second.

Either side of Soho

East across Charing Cross Road, Covent Garden swaps the jazz for the opera house and the grand hotels of the Strand. West across Regent Street, Mayfair is five minutes away and a good deal quieter. The Elizabeth line from Tottenham Court Road reaches the Paddington station hotels in a few minutes and the City in about the same, so a Soho evening can finish almost anywhere.