Thirties and beyond, four of the most composed on the list
Four women here are thirty or over, and between them they hold most of the composure on this site. Two are thirty, one is thirty one and one is thirty two. It is the smallest of the three age bands and the one guests most often come back to, which is neither a coincidence nor anything that was planned.
What the four share is a way of arriving somewhere early and simply waiting rather than making an entrance out of it. Two of them say almost exactly that in their own sentences. None of them has the slightest interest in proving anything, which turns out to be restful company across a long evening.
Thirties and beyond, panel by panel
The four
Nancy is thirty, 170 cm and curvy, golden blonde with blue eyes, soft and precise, and works St Pancras where the district improves once the last continental departure has taken its crowd away. Violetta is also thirty, 178 cm, tall and slender, black haired, and speaks sparingly and well down at Angel and into EC1V.
Margo is thirty one, 166 cm and slim, dark brown haired and precise, and takes the summer theatre and the gardens at Regent's Park. Sonya is thirty two, 162 cm and athletic, hazel eyed, warm and slightly formal, and knows the station district well enough to make an early departure painless.
Why people ask for them
Because a long evening rewards somebody who is comfortable in the quiet half of it. Margo is excellent company for a guest who would rather be talked with than talked at. Violetta stopped explaining her height to anybody some years ago. Nancy is exact without ever being cool about it, and Sonya is the one you want when a morning train is involved.
Their evenings, one by one
Margo's is the Open Air Theatre on the Inner Circle in the season, reached on foot through the rose beds from Baker Street, with a wrap in her bag for after ten. She books those nights herself and asks for a week's notice, and outside the summer she prefers the dinner date, started early enough to walk in through the gardens.
Nancy begins at the British Library on the Euston Road, where the Treasures gallery costs nothing and holds more than one evening can take in, and moves on to a long dinner. Sonya's St Pancras starts in the old churchyard behind the terminus, where the headstones still stand in rings around a tree from the years the railway came through, and ends at a table she can walk to. Violetta's is the Screen on the Green on Upper Street, sofas at the back, then the restaurants at the bottom of the hill.
Choosing among four
Four is a short list, and the choice is mostly about the hour. Sonya takes bookings from around six and prefers a start she can walk to. Nancy suits an arrival and a long evening equally, and will hold a start time for a train running behind. Margo and Violetta are dinner people, both at their best across the four hour booking, and both worth waiting a week or two for.
The bands underneath
Late twenties holds fourteen and early twenties ten. If the age band was not really the point, the list is arranged by district and the north postcodes index explains what each district is actually like after dark. One ladder of rates covers all twenty eight names whatever the year on the profile.
Other shortlists
The sign stays lit
Give the desk an hour and a street, and the rest of the night is arranged quietly, anywhere from the lock at Camden to the Broadway on the ridge.