The unhurried evening, company that behaves like a date

What makes an evening feel unforced

Mostly the hour. An hour is enough for a conversation and not quite enough for the part where both of you stop being polite. Ninety minutes usually gets there and three hours gets there comfortably, which is why the desk suggests it whenever somebody describes what they want rather than naming a length. The second thing is having somewhere to walk to, which up here is never a problem.

Districts that suit it

Hampstead is the obvious one, because the village keeps its shape into the evening and an afternoon start is no compromise at all: a house with a garden behind it, a low table, the heath going dark at the end of the lane.

Angel takes a later and smaller sort of evening, running down into EC1V and Clerkenwell, where the lanes belong to whoever is still out once the dealers in Camden Passage have packed up and gone home.

Three hours, taken slowly

Take three hours in Hampstead as the example, since it is the commonest version. The first half hour is a walk rather than a table, up Flask Walk or along the edge of the heath while there is still light to see it by. The second hour is a drink in a low room with no music, where the conversation has nothing to compete with. The rest belongs to whatever the evening has become by then: a table in the village, a slow walk back to your hotel, or simply staying where you are. Nobody announces the change from one part to the next, which is rather the point of booking it this way.

Companions who do it best

Bianka leaves space in a conversation rather than filling every pause in it, which is rarer company than charm. Jasmin asks whatever follows the obvious question and then waits properly for an answer. Molly will talk the length of a road and leave you convinced you did most of it. Nora is plain and easy in a way that takes the temperature out of a first half hour, and Tiffany is quietly spoken and notices considerably more than she says.

What it is and what it is not

It is time and companionship, the same as every other line here, described honestly rather than coded. Nothing further is offered, nothing further is priced, and no page on this site carries a list of extras because there is no list to carry. What two adults of eighteen and over decide between themselves inside the hours is theirs and has never been ours to sell.

Arranging one

Write to the evening desk with a night, a district and roughly how long you would like, and say if you would rather begin with a walk than a drink. Verity will come back with two or three names and a reason attached to each rather than a sales line. The list is arranged by postcode so you can start from where you are, and the rates page carries every length on one ladder.