One kind of eveningGuests 18+
Out rather than in: a curtain, a bar, and the streets after eleven
Not every appointment is a dinner and a door. Some evenings want a theatre, a bar where the drink takes a while to make, and the long walk afterwards when London has emptied out and is at its very best. Three hours at £700 is what one of these usually runs to, or four at £900 when a table sits in the middle of it.
This circle knows the city after dark rather better than it knows the city at noon, and the good part of such an evening is generally the part nobody planned.
Suited to it
Companions for the later hours
Glamour and lifestyle photography · faces softened · no nudity
02
How the night usually runs
A typical one begins at seven, in the foyer ten minutes before the bell, with the curtain going up at half past. The interval is for a drink and a first opinion, and the second half settles the argument. By ten you are at a bar a short walk away, and by eleven the drink is finished and the two of you are outside. The last part of the three hours is spent on foot, and it ends wherever you decide it should.
03
Curtains first
A play is the single best beginning to a night, because an hour or two in which neither of you may speak does more for the conversation afterwards than any amount of small talk before it. Stacy takes the stalls, reads the programme properly and has judged the second act before the curtain call. Jasmin would rather a lecture theatre and comes out of it arguing. Laura will not have a word said during a film and says all of them afterwards, politely and at length.
04
Bars worth sitting at
Somewhere the drink is made in front of you rather than handed across. Luna takes the bar seats without asking and will tell you what the bartender did differently this time. Roxi takes one properly made drink and never a second. Both would sooner leave a room than shout across it, which is the correct instinct and the reason the walk afterwards matters so much.
05
The walk, which is the point
Every woman in this circle proposes it and none of them were told to. Mayfair after eleven is the quietest place in central London and it is a pity to see it through a taxi window. Sloane Square down towards the river takes ten minutes and always takes twenty. The last hour of a night out is generally spent on foot, and it is generally the hour people remember afterwards.
06
The districts that suit it
Sloane Square has the theatre on its corner and kitchens still serving at eleven towards the King's Road. Albemarle Street has the lecture theatre halfway down it, and Green Park has the small panelled bar on St James's Place where the drink is made at your table. For a film, Notting Hill has the armchairs at the back of the old cinema on Portobello Road. Delphine pairs the district with whichever companion knows it best.
07
Clubs, and the honest position on them
Several of the circle will go on to a club and several will not, and Delphine knows exactly which is which. Where a door is a members' door, getting through it is yours rather than ours: this house holds no memberships and asks no favours of anybody. Name the door you have in mind and she will pair you with somebody genuinely happy to be standing at it.
08
What to tell the switchboard
The date first and the performance second, since the companion is chosen around what is on. Say whether the tickets are already bought and where you are sitting, so that she arrives dressed for the stalls or for a box as the case may be. If you would like her to choose the bar afterwards, say so; most of the circle hold a firm opinion and would welcome being asked.
09
Lengths, and running on
Three hours at £700 covers a curtain and a drink afterwards. Four at £900 adds a table. If you reach the end of the third hour and nobody wants to go home, one line to the switchboard moves the booking up a rung rather than hours being added loosely, and the corrected figure reaches your companion before it reaches you. Beyond that lies dinner until morning. The full ladder is at rates and the whole circle is in the Salon.
Letters
Two letters on this
Before you write
Questions on this appointment
Who buys the tickets?
You do, as you would for any guest. If the evening turns on a particular performance, give Delphine the date first so that she can check which of the circle has already seen it and which would rather see it fresh.
Can we meet at the theatre rather than at an address?
Yes, and most of these evenings begin that way. She will be in the foyer ten minutes before the bell, and the hours begin when she arrives there.
What if the performance is cancelled on the day?
Tell Delphine at once. With three hours of warning or more nothing is owed, and very often the evening simply becomes a dinner at the same length instead.
Is there anywhere the circle will not go?
A few will not stand in a loud room past midnight and several will not queue, and Delphine takes both into account when she proposes a name. Beyond that, any respectable room in the West End is open, provided it will let the two of you in.
Also taken
Other appointments
One message is enough
Send the district and the hour
Write where you are and when you would like her. A name and an arrival window come back, and the evening is arranged from there.
Guests are 18+ without exception. A fee is for time and companionship only, and the whole tariff is on the rates page.