Green Park, W1J and SW1A: an evening waiting when you land

The park, the corner and the streets below it

Green Park itself is the plainest of the royal parks, mostly grass and plane trees with no flowerbeds to speak of, and that plainness is the reason it is so pleasant to walk after dark. Piccadilly runs along its northern edge, with the grand hotel on the corner and the Royal Academy a little further east.

Below the park lies St James's, which is a different sort of district again: Jermyn Street with its shirtmakers, St James's Street climbing to Piccadilly between the old clubs, and the small passages off it where a panelled bar can seat perhaps twenty people. Postcodes shift from W1J to SW1A as you cross St James's Street.

The whole of it is walkable in a quarter of an hour, and almost all of it is quiet by nine. It is the part of central London that most resembles a small town that happens to have a palace at one end.

Arranged before you land

The Piccadilly line runs from Heathrow directly to Green Park without a change, and the Victoria line is a single stop from Victoria, where the Gatwick trains come in. That is why so many arrival evenings in this book are booked to this postcode, and why Delphine is used to messages that begin with a flight number.

The way to do it is straightforward. Write before you board with the date, the landing time and the length you want, and Delphine will confirm a companion and an hour while you are still in the air. Give yourself a margin: an hour past the scheduled landing covers the queue, the bag and the ride, and nobody enjoys a first evening that starts with an apology.

If the flight slips, write when you have signal and Delphine moves the hour if the day book allows. Three hours of notice or more costs you nothing; from two hours out, half of what was agreed stands, which is exactly why the margin is worth building in at the start.

Where the arrival evenings happen

The house on the corner at W1J 9BR is the most recognisable address in this postcode and the one with the firmest view on what the dining room expects. W1J 7BJ faces the park further west along Piccadilly. W1J 7BH occupies a Georgian terrace on Half Moon Street just behind it. W1J 8LT is three minutes north on Stratton Street.

Below the park the two St James's houses are smaller and quieter. SW1A 1NJ sits at the end of its own cul de sac off St James's Place, and SW1A 1NY is a few doors away, with a small panelled bar where the trolley comes to the table.

This house has no arrangement with any of them and never seeks one. Your companion arrives as your guest, goes up as your guest, and speaks to nobody about why she is there.

Minutes, lines and the airport rule

Green Park station is about 1 minute from the Piccadilly kerb and carries the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Hyde Park Corner is roughly 6 minutes west along the park railings, on the Piccadilly line. Piccadilly Circus lies some 8 minutes east, on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines.

Your companion arrives by car rather than by train, set down at the door you name, and since W1J and SW1A are as central as London gets, her travel is inside the figure with nothing added. A booking at an airport hotel rather than here is a different arrangement: those run at three hours or longer with her travelling time counted inside them, and are quoted as a single sum.

Whichever it is, the fee is settled with your companion in person when she arrives, and it is exactly the figure Delphine put in writing before you landed.

Two who begin an evening here

Danielle likes a high ceilinged dining room on Piccadilly where dinner runs late and the room deserves an early arrival, with the park directly opposite for the walk afterwards. Roxi starts in the small panelled bar on St James's Place, takes one properly made drink slowly and never a second, then walks up through the passage into the park itself.

Molly is a minute north on Dover Street, Jasmin and Tina just beyond her, and the Mayfair women are five minutes away. Every other name in the Salon attends this corner on the same tariff.

Where this corner leads

North, the Mayfair streets begin the moment you cross Piccadilly. North east, the gallery row of Albemarle Street and the doors of Dover Street run up towards Grafton Street within two minutes. North west along the park railings, the Park Lane hotel row faces Hyde Park at the far end of Piccadilly. St James's and the palace lie below, and Piccadilly Circus closes the eastern end.