Mayfair, W1K and W1J, an evening taken hour by hour

Six o'clock, when nothing is settled

The windows on Bruton Street light up about an hour before anyone needs them to, and for a while the district belongs to people finishing work. It is the easiest hour of the evening to fill at short notice. A guest who landed at four and slept badly asks for ninety minutes and a conversation, and is given both without anything being made of it. Ninety minutes is £400. At six the roads still move, and three of our companions live inside the postcode and simply walk.

Eight o'clock, and the tables

Dinner here is reserved earlier than visitors expect. The small rooms on Conduit Street, Bruton Street and Mount Street let their eight o'clock covers go days ahead, and the ones that never fill are usually the ones worth walking past. Tell Tamsin the day before and the table is settled before your companion leaves home. Three hours is £700 and the four hour dinner date £900, which is the length most guests settle on once they have tried the shorter one. You settle the table yourself, as host, in the ordinary way of asking somebody out.

Eleven o'clock, the rooms that stay open

After eleven the district shrinks to about a dozen rooms. Some are hotel bars, some sit behind doors with no sign at all, and one or two are private flats where somebody has decided the evening is not over. A companion reads that difference quickly. If the plan involves a club, check its own rule on guests before the evening starts: several will take a guest only before a stated hour, and one or two never will. Where there is any doubt she waits in a hotel bar close by rather than at a door.

One o'clock, and the way back

The last hour is the one people remember and the one they think about least when booking. Say at the start when the evening ends, and it ends then, with no scene and no clock consulted in front of you. Ten hours overnight is £1,800 and covers dinner, the hour after it and breakfast; it is often decided at eleven rather than at seven. If that is what you want, say so while the kitchen is still open. Tamsin will answer either way, and a plain no is not a disappointment here.

Six hotels, given as addresses only

W1K 4HR, on the corner of Brook Street. W1K 2AL, at the Mount Street end. W1K 1QA and W1K 1PN, both facing the park across the lane. W1S 4BP, on Albemarle Street, and W1J 9BR, at the Piccadilly corner.

Not one of these houses is connected to this one, and none has been asked for anything. We list them because that is where guests sleep, and because a companion who has used an entrance once uses it calmly the next time.

Stations, and the minutes on foot

Green Park is 4 minutes from the middle of the district and carries the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Bond Street is 5 minutes, with the Central and Jubilee lines and the Elizabeth line, which is the useful one if you are coming in from Heathrow or from the City. Hyde Park Corner is 7 minutes, Piccadilly line. After the last train none of this matters: companions travel by car at any hour, and anywhere in the first two fare zones the ride is already inside the fee.

The three who live here

Angelika is twenty-four, dark, quiet for the first ten minutes and then not at all, and keeps a late table on Conduit Street. Luna wears white and pearls she has owned for years, and is better over a full dinner than a short call. Samanta is tall, dressed in black and punctual to the minute at both ends of an evening.

From the streets immediately around, Tina and Vanessa come across from Mount Street, Roxi and Tiffany from the square, and Jasmin and Nancy from the Park Lane side. None of them needs a map.

Where Mayfair hands you on

Park Lane is the western edge, three minutes down Upper Grosvenor Street. The square at the north end is the quietest part of the district. Mount Street runs through the middle and is short enough to walk twice without noticing. South across Piccadilly lie the clubs of St James's, about eight minutes on foot from the Piccadilly corner. Berkeley Square and Bond Street sit inside these boundaries rather than beside them. All of it is served at the same rates.