Ways To MeetAn hour opens at £250

Ways to meet, the ten shapes a north London evening takes

Nobody arrives here wanting the same thing twice. One guest has ninety minutes between a meeting on the Euston Road and a train that will not wait; another wants a table at the top of a hill and the whole evening to get down from it; a third has a company dinner he would rather not face alone. The ten pages below set out every shape an evening takes here, written as Verity would put it in a message rather than as a brochure would.

All ten run on one ladder, £250 for an hour at the near end and £1,800 for a ten hour overnight at the far one, with a weekend quoted once you send the dates. The figure covers her time and her company and nothing further, whether she is walking into a hotel by the lock in Camden Town or climbing the hill to Highgate, and the whole list works to it in every postcode.

Jobs taken at the counter

Ten shapes an evening takes

10 ways to meet

Job 01Hotel outcall companionshipHotel eveningsThe simplest booking on this site and much the most common. A companion leaves wherever she is, travels to the building you are in, and knocks at the hour agreed. Nothing is arranged in a lobby...5 suited to it Job 02Dinner date companionshipDinner up the hillNorth London eats late and it eats locally, which is the whole argument for a dinner date up here rather than in the middle of town. Nine o'clock is a normal hour to sit down on Upper Street and...5 suited to it Job 03Overnight companionshipOvernightsAn overnight is ten hours and it begins where a good evening was already heading: a late set on Parkway, a table nobody wanted to leave, the last train missed on purpose. What separates it from...4 suited to it Job 04Girlfriend experience companionshipThe unhurried eveningSome guests want an evening that does not announce itself as one. No lobby, no clipboard, no sense of a transaction taking place at the edge of the room: two people who have arranged to spend a...5 suited to it Job 05Travel companionshipTrains out and trips awayThree mainline stations sit within ten minutes' walk of each other at the bottom of this map, which is why half the bookings here are shaped by a departure board rather than by a diary. Some of...4 suited to it Job 06Business event companionshipBlack tie and company dinnersA room where you will be introduced twenty times in an hour is a particular kind of work, and walking into it alone is harder than it looks. A companion at one of these is not decoration. She is...5 suited to it Job 07Duo companionshipTwo names, one eveningAn evening with two companions has a different weather to it. The conversation never stalls, nothing has to be carried by any one person, and a quiet drink somewhere has a habit of turning into...6 suited to it Job 08Companionship for couplesCompany for twoCouples write to this desk for all sorts of reasons. An anniversary in a city they already love, a birthday that wanted something other than another restaurant, or simply the pleasure of adding a...4 suited to it Job 09Night out companionshipThe long way homeA night out in north London looks nothing like a night out in the middle of town. There is no queue, the room is smaller, the sound is better, and the walk home is part of the evening rather than...5 suited to it Job 10Extended booking companionshipWeekends and longer staysThere is a point at which a booking stops being a clock and starts being a calendar, and a weekend is that point. Ten hours is the longest line on the ladder and a weekend sits past it, which is...4 suited to it

Behind the counter

02 Filed

The four most people ask for

Most weeks open with a hotel evening: a companion travelling to the building you are in, usually inside the hour around the stations. Dinner up the hill buys four hours and a long table. An overnight runs from a late start to the morning after. And the unhurried evening is for anyone who would rather it felt like a date than an appointment.

03 Filed

Evenings with a fixed point in them

A curtain, a doors time, a departure board: send the fixed point and the rest gets built around it. Trains out and trips away covers arrivals at the three termini, the airport hotels beyond the zones and nights away from London. Black tie and company dinners is the page to read before a reception where you will be introduced twenty times in an hour. The long way home is a proper night out, which up here tends to finish on a towpath rather than in a queue.

04 Filed

Evenings for more than two

Two names, one evening books a pair of companions who already know one another, each on her own figure from the same ladder. Company for two is for couples who would like a third person at the table, arranged with both of you and kept at the pace both of you set. Neither page offers anything beyond time and conversation, and neither ever will.

05 Filed

When one evening is not enough

Weekends and longer stays is where a booking stops being a clock and turns into a calendar. Two days in the same city, or a week somewhere else, is quoted as one figure once the desk has the dates and the district.

The rates page carries the ladder in full, the booking page has the five steps in order, and the north postcodes index says which districts are quick to reach and which honestly are not. Every guest here is an adult of eighteen and over.

Last of the night

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.

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