Piccadilly escorts in W1J, from Hyde Park Corner to the Circus

Along the mile

The Royal Academy at Burlington House stays open late on Fridays and hangs its Summer Exhibition from June. Burlington Arcade, beside it, closes in the early evening, its beadles in top hats seeing the last browsers out. Fortnum & Mason keeps its tea salon on the fourth floor and its clock on the facade. Across the road, St James's Church, built by Wren, holds lunchtime recitals, and Hatchards, the oldest bookshop in London, sells from a shopfront a few doors along.

Fortnum's closes in the evening and the arcade before it, but the Royal Academy's Friday openings, the dining rooms along the mile and the bars of the big hotels carry the street well past eleven. After midnight Piccadilly becomes a road of taxis and lit lobbies, and the account is as open then as it is at noon.

At night the street is broad, lit and full of taxis in both directions, which makes it one of the easiest addresses in London for an arrival nobody notices.

Hotels on or just off Piccadilly

The Ritz, at the Green Park end, is the grandest and the most photographed. The Athenaeum faces the park further west, smaller and more private. Brown's Hotel is a minute north up Albemarle Street, all panelling, with the Donovan Bar for a quiet first drink. At the eastern end, Hotel Café Royal fills the corner of Regent Street above the Circus, and its gilded 1865 room, once Oscar Wilde's favourite, is still the most dramatic place on the mile to begin.

Companions arrive at every one of them as a named guest's visitor. None is a partner of the house, and the list above is a map, not a network.

Stations on the mile

Piccadilly Circus, Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines, is about 2 minutes from Hotel Café Royal and the eastern end. Green Park, Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria, is around 4 minutes from The Ritz and Brown's. Hyde Park Corner closes the western end. The Piccadilly line runs directly beneath the street all the way from Heathrow, useful for a guest arriving with luggage and no wish to change trains.

Between message and arrival

Give the house a day, an hour, a length and a hotel. A companion and the exact figure come back in writing, and a same evening booking usually reaches a Piccadilly hotel 30 to 45 minutes after that confirmation. One WhatsApp check follows, full name and room number, and she sets out.

The deposit is a quarter of the fee for a standard booking, sent by bank transfer, and half for an overnight, an event or a travel date, with the travel component non refundable. The remainder is settled when she arrives. The complete sequence is on the booking page.

Guests on Piccadilly

Piccadilly bookings are the most varied on the account. Gallery goers who spend Friday evening at the Royal Academy and want company for the late supper after. First time visitors staying near Fortnum's, who book two hours and a walk. Guests at The Ritz who reserved the Palm Court and want someone to share the tea with. Business travellers at Hotel Café Royal, back from a meeting in St James's, booking at nine for the evening that remains.

An evening, east to west

18:00, the Royal Academy on a Friday, one room and one opinion each. 19:15, the walk west along Piccadilly to Hide, where the staircase is carved from oak and the windows look across Green Park. 21:00, a few minutes on foot to The Athenaeum or back along the arcade of The Ritz. The three hour booking, £700, covers it end to end.

Companions nearest Piccadilly

The street is shared ground for several home districts. From Mayfair, Luna photographs these streets at night and knows where the light falls best. From Belgravia, Patricia will stop at Hatchards if you let her, bookshops being her weakness. From Covent Garden, Karolina, tall and private, enjoys architecture walks and has views on Burlington House. Jasmin, based in Soho, is ideal for a booking that begins after the theatre at the Circus end.

Either side of the mile

Green Park runs along the southern side at the western end. St James's lies directly south of the eastern half. North, the side streets lead into Berkeley Square and Bond Street, and the mile ends at Piccadilly Circus.