London after eleven is harder to read for a visitor. The restaurants empty, the pubs call time, and the good places left open are rarely the ones with a sign outside. This encounter gives you a companion for that stretch of the night: which bar still has a table at half past eleven, which jazz room runs a late set, which street is quiet enough for the walk home.
Three hours, £700, is the length most nights out settle on, though two hours is plenty for a single bar and a nightcap. The night ends where it began, at your hotel, and her fee, for her time and company, is settled with her directly at the start.
22:00, a cocktail at your hotel bar. 22:45, a short walk into Soho, to a basement bar or a late show at Ronnie Scott's, the jazz club on Frith Street. 00:30, one last stop, somewhere quieter. 01:00, back through the West End to your own lobby. She will have a plan, and she will happily drop it if yours sounds better.
After the street closes, hotel bars are a guest's best friend, because they can usually go on serving residents long after the pubs have stopped. That makes your own hotel the natural last stop, or one close by: The Londoner on Leicester Square and the bars around Covent Garden are a short walk from most of the West End. Residents' bars in W1 that pour well past midnight are named in the Mayfair grand hotel notes.
A few doors in Mayfair and Soho still look at shoes and collars. She dresses for the most demanding stop on the route, so tell the desk where you want to end up. If the plan is loose, smart casual covers most of the West End, and she will match whatever you are wearing when she knocks.
A good night out has a shape, and she keeps an eye on it: water between rounds, food before midnight, a change of bar once the music gets too loud to talk over. It is not about caution, just about still enjoying the evening at one in the morning. Drinks, tables and entry are your bill; her fee is for her time.
Soho is not the only way to spend a late evening. West of it, the night is quieter and dressier: the hotel bars of Mayfair, a Martini at the Connaught Bar, a last glass under the gilt of the Rivoli Bar at The Ritz. South of the river, the bars high up in The Shard above London Bridge keep the whole city lit up beneath you. Tell the desk which mood you are after, and she plans the route around it.
Molly, Soho based, knows which basements play the best house music after midnight and how to get through their doors. Jasmin, also from Soho, loves a dance floor and a properly made classic cocktail. Stacy, 176 cm and from Chelsea, is spontaneous, deadpan and happy to follow a detour. Tiffany photographs Soho's hand painted signs and can tell you which bars are older than they look. Jasmin, Molly and Stacy are all under early twenties.
The desk is awake all night, and a night out can begin at eleven or later. After midnight the West End thins out but never quite empties; hotel bars and a handful of clubs carry on. Nothing costs more for starting late, and an hour at one in the morning is the same £250 as an hour at six in the evening. The Soho and Covent Garden stay notes help if you are choosing a hotel close to the action.
Every night out ends back at your hotel, with a nightcap in the lounge or upstairs, and she leaves when the booked time closes. Want to keep going? Ask before the three hours finish; if her night is free, the booking moves up to the four hour length and only the difference is added. The booking page shows every step. Send the hotel and a start time.
Straight answers from the night desk. Anything missing goes to Henrietta in one message.
No. The fee covers her time and company. Drinks, tables and entry are settled by you as the evening goes, as they would be for any guest.
Yes. London is quieter early in the week, but hotel bars, jazz rooms and a few late kitchens stay open, and she will know which.
For one bar and a nightcap, yes. Add a second venue and the stroll home and you will want three hours, £700.
Yes. Send the bar's name and a time; she arrives a little ahead of you. The single check on your hotel details still happens first.
Then the route skips the dance floors. Tell the desk the pace you like, jazz and a quiet corner or a lively bar, and she plans around it.
Describe the plan for nights out in a line or two, and the desk comes back with names, a figure and a time.
