Mount Street, W1K, where a whole evening fits in four minutes

Pink terracotta, and why

The street was rebuilt in the 1880s and 1890s by the estate in a deep pink terracotta that almost nothing else in London was built in, with Dutch gables, moulded panels and a great deal of decoration that rewards looking up. It was an unfashionable choice at the time and has aged better than most of what was fashionable. The effect at dusk, when the lamps come on and the material goes from pink to something nearer orange, is worth four minutes of anyone's evening.

The garden behind it

Behind the southern side of the street, reached through a gate that most people walk past, lies a long sheltered garden that was a burial ground before it was anything else. It has plane trees, benches, a great many blackbirds, and a microclimate that keeps it several degrees warmer than the pavement outside. It closes at dusk. A quarter of an hour in it before dinner is the reason one of our companions asks for the extra half hour, and she is right to.

Five hotels, all within a short walk

W1K 2AL, at the Carlos Place corner, which is the street’s own hotel in all but name. W1K 2HP, four minutes north on the square. W1K 1QA, four minutes west on the lane. W1J 5EB, six minutes south-east. W1K 7TN, six minutes north-west.

None of these houses is connected to ours, and none has ever been approached. They are named for distance, so that you know what four minutes buys you.

An evening with no car in it

This is the thing worth knowing about W1K. A two hour booking at £500 here can hold a drink, a table and a walk without a single journey in it, and a three hour evening at £700 leaves time to change rooms twice. Nothing is more than a few minutes away. Guests who have spent the day in traffic find this more restful than they expect, and it is the commonest reason people who have booked here once book here again.

Stations, for completeness

Bond Street is 7 minutes north-east, Central and Jubilee lines and the Elizabeth line. Green Park is 7 minutes south-east, Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria. Hyde Park Corner is 9 minutes south-west on the Piccadilly line. You will probably not use any of them. Your companion arrives by car, and within Zones 1 and 2 the fare is already inside the fee.

Who books on the street

Guests at W1K 2AL, in numbers. Residents of the flats over the shops, which are large and very quiet. People who have come to Mayfair for a fitting or a sale and built an evening on the end of it. And a steady few who book here precisely because they do not want an itinerary: one street, one table, and somebody to walk it with.

On the street's own list

Tina is twenty-six, small, fast, espresso dark and impossible to intimidate; she is often free at short notice and walks to most W1 addresses rather than waiting for a car. Vanessa is twenty-five, hazel eyed and dressed in garden colours, is at her best over three hours or more, and likes that quarter of an hour among the plane trees before dinner.

A few streets either side, Roxi and Tiffany come from the square, Angelika, Luna and Samanta from the streets around Berkeley Square, and Jasmin and Nancy from the lane.

Where Mount Street hands you on

The square is four minutes north. Park Lane is four minutes west, and the park a few minutes beyond it. The rest of Mayfair opens at the eastern end by Carlos Place and runs to Berkeley Square and Bond Street. St James's is ten minutes south across Piccadilly. All of it is attended at the same figures.