Berkeley Square, W1J: the hour before the table is called

Plane trees, offices and a great many doors

The square is older than almost everything around it, and the plane trees on its garden are among the oldest in central London. The western side keeps a run of eighteenth century houses; the rest has been rebuilt, mostly into offices whose lights stay on later than anybody outside them expects. At six o'clock the square empties of one crowd and fills with another.

The streets around it do the real work. Bruton Street runs east towards Bond Street. Bruton Place is the mews behind it, low ceilinged and almost hidden. Hill Street and Charles Street go west into the residential part of Mayfair. Berkeley Street drops south towards Piccadilly with the busiest rooms on it.

Nothing here is more than a four minute walk from anything else, which is why the square works so well as a starting point. A drink at seven, a table at half past eight, and no car needed between them.

The hour that is usually skipped

The mistake guests make in this quarter is arriving straight at the restaurant. An evening that begins at the table starts cold, and it takes most of the first course to warm up. An evening that begins with an unhurried hour somewhere quieter arrives at the table already going.

So Delphine will often propose a booking that opens before the reservation rather than at it. Two hours at £500 covers a drink and dinner. Three at £700 covers a drink, dinner and whatever the square suggests afterwards, which in this postcode is frequently a good deal more walking than anyone planned.

None of this is a package and none of it is priced in parts. The tariff is a ladder of hours and nothing else, and what happens inside the hours you have taken is a matter for you and your companion. Whatever the evening costs on its own account, the table, the seats, the tray sent up at midnight, belongs to the host, as it would for anyone you had asked out.

Hotels within sight of the garden

W1J 8LT stands on Stratton Street at the southern corner and is the largest house of the group. W1J 5EB is on Charles Street, quieter and more panelled than anything else nearby. W1J 7BH occupies a row of Georgian houses on Half Moon Street. Carlos Place is four minutes west at W1K 2AL, and Albemarle Street four minutes east at W1S 4BP.

As everywhere else in this book, no arrangement exists with any hotel. Your companion walks in as the guest she is and has nothing to explain to anybody.

The square also holds a great many flats above the offices, and a number of company apartments used by people who are in London for a month at a time. Those bookings run exactly as hotel ones do, and Delphine asks nothing about the building beyond what the front door needs.

Four minutes to Green Park

Green Park station is about 4 minutes south through Berkeley Street, with the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines under it. Bond Street lies roughly 6 minutes north, carrying the Central and Jubilee lines and the Elizabeth line. Hyde Park Corner is some 10 minutes west, on the Piccadilly line.

Your companion arrives by car at the address you name. W1J is central, so her journey is inside the fee and nothing is added for it. An address beyond the two central zones adds a taxi fare both ways, quoted as one sum before you agree to it, and airport hotel bookings are taken at three hours or longer with her travelling time inside them.

Your companion takes the fee from you herself at the door, at the figure Delphine confirmed in writing.

Two who keep to the square

Nancy begins a Berkeley Square evening on the north side, in a room dramatic enough to be worth looking at and loud enough to talk in, and finishes with a circuit of the gardens. Thea does the opposite on purpose: a small mews room a minute off the square, a short menu, the same corner table, and the square itself afterwards under the trees.

Angelika, Luna and Samanta are minutes away across Mayfair, and Molly comes over from Soho in six. Every other name in the Salon attends W1J on the same tariff.

Four minutes in any direction

North across Bruton Street, the Mayfair streets run up to Grosvenor Square. East, the W1S blocks by Bond Street fill with daylight appointments. South east, the gallery row on Albemarle Street and the doors on Dover Street drop towards Piccadilly within three minutes of the garden. South, the Green Park corner takes the late arrivals. Mount Street and Piccadilly close the other two sides.