St James's hotels, SW1A and SW1Y: courtyard doors, small lobbies and a lift to your floor

Dukes, at the end of the cul de sac

Dukes London stands at the closed end of St James's Place, behind a small gaslit courtyard. Cars turn round right outside the door, which makes it one of the most private arrivals in London: a visitor is out of the taxi and inside within a few steps, with no pavement to cross. The ground floor is a pair of sitting rooms rather than a hall, and the bar, known for its martinis, lies to one side. It is a pleasant place to meet before going up, though small enough that you should tell the desk which corner you are sitting in.

The Stafford and its mews

A few doors along the same street, The Stafford has two ways in. The main entrance faces St James's Place. Behind the hotel, across a cobbled yard, the Carriage House keeps rooms in what were once stables, with their own door onto Blue Ball Yard. A guest in the Carriage House can meet a visitor at that door, clear of the main building altogether.

Tell the desk which of the two you are in, because she walks to a different entrance for each, and the porter in the main house has no reason to know about a guest in the mews.

The Cavendish on Jermyn Street

The Cavendish London is the modern house in the district: a tall building from the 1960s on Jermyn Street, standing where an Edwardian hotel of the same name once stood. Its lobby is open and busy, it has several lifts, and a visitor walking straight to them draws no attention at any hour. It is the easiest St James's hotel for a very late arrival, and the one where meeting at your own room door works best.

Pall Mall and the Haymarket end

At the eastern edge, Sofitel London St James fills an old banking hall on Waterloo Place, with a doorman on the steps and a tall, well lit lobby that makes a formal first impression. Round the corner, the Haymarket Hotel stands beside the Theatre Royal, its entrance on Suffolk Place rather than on the busy Haymarket itself, and a swimming pool below ground that some guests use as the start of the evening.

Off St James's Street, St James's Hotel and Club on Park Place keeps the feel of the private club it once was, with a doorway more like a house than a hotel. At a door like that, meeting her on the step and walking in together is the most natural thing in the world.

Timing in SW1

The companions who live nearest are across Piccadilly in Mayfair and beyond the palace in Belgravia, so a St James's hotel is usually reached thirty to forty minutes after the desk confirms, a little longer on theatre nights when the Haymarket fills with cars.

Send the hotel, your room and your full name. At The Stafford, say main house or Carriage House; at Dukes, say whether you would rather meet in the bar. She comes dressed for a quiet hotel bar, and you settle the fee with her directly, in person, after she arrives.

Who stays in St James's

Guests who find Mayfair too loud. Buyers at the auction house on King Street and the galleries around it, lawyers and private bankers in town for a week, theatre goers with seats at the Haymarket. They choose the district for the very reason a visitor finds it easy: the streets empty early, and the few doors are watched by people paid to be discreet.

Samanta and Angelika in Mayfair are a short walk away, and Patricia comes across from Belgravia. The desk notes on Victoria and Westminster hotels cover the streets just south, and Soho starts on the far side of Piccadilly Circus.