Margo in the corner banquette

Margo gives away very little at first, and that is part of the pleasure. Slim, 166 cm, her dark brown hair long and poker straight, her brown eyes seemingly keeping a private joke, she has the refined composure that tends to arrive in the early thirties. Her style borrows from old lounges and smoky records: a velvet slip dress, a fitted jacket with a nipped waist, a vintage clutch, short red nails. She is the woman in the corner banquette you find yourself wondering about before she has even looked up.

Calm is her element. Margo talks slowly and well, in polished English, asks the questions that matter and leaves the rest alone. Contemporary art is her serious interest, and she visits the small galleries of Soho and Fitzrovia the week a show opens, before the reviews arrive. She plays piano most evenings for her own pleasure, standards rather than classical, and she gardens on a Knightsbridge balcony with an ambition out of all proportion to its size.

In Soho she chooses Kettner's Townhouse on Romilly Street, a warren of old townhouse rooms with a champagne bar that feels like a well-kept secret from another century. She takes the chair facing the door, orders a glass of something dry, and lets the evening unfold at its own pace. After an hour she might suggest dinner in the restaurant or a slow walk to your hotel through the quieter lanes behind Old Compton Street.

Back from her break on the 21st, Margo reopens long evenings and overnights from her Knightsbridge base. Ask the host to note your dates for the quiet streets of W1D, and booking will confirm as soon as she returns.