On the list tonight: escorts in Chinatown, Gerrard Street to Lisle Street
Chinatown occupies six streets of W1D and keeps the latest hours in the West End. Gerrard Street runs the length of it under lanterns strung from the lamp posts, with the painted gates at either end, ducks turning in the windows and pots of tea arriving before anybody has ordered. Lisle Street runs parallel one block south, Newport Court and Macclesfield Street cross between them, and every doorway seems to lead upstairs to a room that is still serving.
Guests book here for the simplest reason in the city: this is where the evening goes when everywhere else has stopped. Below are the hotels a lady walks into, the two stations and the walk from each, how the door answers after midnight, and a supper worth copying. Every figure is on the rates page, with the message template on booking.
Stations, on foot
- Leicester SquareNorthern, Piccadilly2′walk
- Piccadilly CircusBakerloo, Piccadilly4′walk
- Tottenham Court RoadCentral, Northern, Elizabeth line7′walk
Walking times run from the station exit into Chinatown. She comes straight to your door, whatever the hour.
Hotel doors
- WC2H 7DXLeicester Square · outcall to your room
- W1D 7DTSoho · outcall to your room
- W1D 3SESoho · outcall to your room
- WC2N 4HXCovent Garden · outcall to your room
- W1D 3JASoho · outcall to your room
Listed as landmarks, never as partners. She visits guests staying at them; your room number waits until the host has confirmed.
Closest to Chinatown
The 8 ladies below live closest to Chinatown. Every other name on the ladies can come here too, travel in Zones 1 and 2 included.
Tiffany
Jasmin
Molly
Tina
Karolina
Nancy
Samanta
Angelika
Six streets that keep their own clock
The rhythm here runs backwards to the rest of W1. The lunch rush belongs to the cinema crowd, the early evening to families at round tables, and the interesting part starts around eleven, when the theatre audience has been fed and the chefs from half of Soho come in to eat. Kitchens on Gerrard Street take orders until two or three in the morning, the bakeries open their hatches, and the karaoke rooms upstairs run on until they are asked to stop.
It is also the least self conscious quarter in central London. Nobody is dressed to be photographed, nobody is queueing to be seen, and a couple sharing a late plate of dumplings at one in the morning draws exactly no attention. Discretion here is a by product of everybody minding their own supper.
Rooms a lantern's length away
WC2H 7DX is the nearest large house, ninety seconds south through the gate on Gerrard Place, with a lobby deep enough to cross unnoticed at any hour. Another sits on the Wardour Street corner at the western gate, its lift bank a few steps from the door. The red block on the north side of Leicester Square is two minutes away. The small plain rooms on Moor Street are one street east, and W1D 7DT is four minutes north in its courtyard off Great Windmill Street.
None of them has an arrangement with the house, and we would not invent one. They are named because guests stay in them and a lady arrives as your invited visitor, asking nothing of the desk. The flats above the restaurants on Gerrard and Lisle Street are visited on the same terms, buzzer and staircase included.
Two stations, two and four minutes
Leicester Square station is about 2 minutes from the eastern gate, on the Northern and Piccadilly lines. Piccadilly Circus is roughly 4 minutes west along Shaftesbury Avenue or Wardour Street, on the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines. Both run late, and the night buses from Trafalgar Square are a short walk south.
Gerrard Street itself is closed to cars for most of its length, so a cab will stop at the Wardour Street end or on Shaftesbury Avenue and the last thirty seconds are on foot under the lanterns. Tell the host which end of the street you are nearest and she will come to the gate you can see.
Answering at one in the morning
The house keeps a host awake at every hour, which matters more in this postcode than in most. Send the hotel, the hour, the length of the evening and either a name from the list or a sketch of the company you want. The reply arrives within 10 to 15 minutes with her name and the figure.
One check follows: your full name, the hotel and the room number over WhatsApp or Telegram, confirmed once and held with the door. A standard hotel or residence booking is secured as soon as the details check out; overnights, events and travel are set out in writing before anyone leaves. Her fee is handed to her in person when she walks in.
After confirmation she is usually through your door an hour or so later, and a busy Saturday on Shaftesbury Avenue can stretch that, so the host messages her exact time once she leaves. A late request is not an imposition. If anything, the small hours are when this part of W1D is at its most agreeable.
Supper at eleven, and what follows
23:00, a table at Joy King Lau or Four Seasons, whichever has the shorter queue, for roast duck and a pot of jasmine tea. 23:45, a slow walk the length of Gerrard Street while the lanterns sway and the last of the theatre crowd disperses. 00:15, a cocktail behind an unmarked door, because half the good drinking in this postcode happens upstairs or downstairs and never at street level. 01:00, back through the gate to your room.
Two hours at £500 covers supper and the walk back. Three hours at £700 leaves time for the cocktail, and the four hour dinner date at £900 is the version where nobody looks at a watch. Ten hours overnight, £1,800, ends with breakfast somewhere that opens early.
Names that know the gate
Jasmin is the obvious name here. She lives a few streets away, starts after nine and treats the drinks list at every late door between Wardour Street and Newport Court as personal territory. Molly, also from Soho, considers midnight the middle of the evening rather than the end of it. Tiffany prefers a midweek supper and will photograph the lanterns on the way back.
From Covent Garden, across Charing Cross Road, Nancy is fond of a late counter and Tina is easy company at short notice. Everybody else on the guest list comes to W1D on the same figures, travel included.
Out through either gate
North across Shaftesbury Avenue the small streets of Soho begin. East through Gerrard Place is Leicester Square and its cinemas. West along Wardour Street brings you to Piccadilly Circus in four minutes, and south of the square the hill runs down to Charing Cross. Every street of the postcode is listed on the W1D map.
Before you go, class="kw">read
Two notes from the door that fit an evening around Chinatown.
- 01 · 5 min readSpeakeasies Worth Finding in SohoSoho keeps its best rooms behind plain doors and a bookcase that swings the wrong way. Here is where the real hidden bars sit, and the quiet nerve it takes to find them.Step inside
- 02 · 5 min readA Late Supper in ChinatownGerrard Street keeps its own hours, long after the rest of the West End has gone quiet. A short guide to eating properly here once the evening has already started elsewhere.Step inside
Chinatown, asked at the door
Short, plain answers. Anything else, the host takes by message at any hour.
Yes, and this is the postcode where that request is most common. A host is awake at every hour, and after written confirmation she is usually at the door about an hour later, with her exact time sent to you in the chat rather than a promise the traffic could break.
WC2H 7DX and the Wardour Street corner at either gate, the red block on Leicester Square, the rooms on Moor Street and W1D 7DT four minutes north. The street does duty for the name here, and none of them is a partner of the house.
Certainly. Book two hours or more, name the restaurant, and she will meet you at the table or at the gate, whichever is easier to find. The booking starts at the time you agree, so the meal is part of the evening.
One hour, from £250, with ninety minutes at £400 the usual late request. Travel anywhere in Zones 1 and 2 is inside the figure, so a Chinatown address never carries a fare.
There is no such hour. Kitchens here serve past two, the door answers all night, and a booking made at one in the morning runs on exactly the same terms as one made at seven in the evening.
The doors next door
The neighbourhoods that share a street, a station or a short walk with Chinatown. The full map sits on the neighbourhoods page.
Piccadilly Circus
Arrivals at W1B 4DY and W1D 7DT, and private addresses close by.
escorts in Leicester Square
Arrivals at WC2H 7DX and W1D 7DT, and private addresses close by.
West End hotels
Arrivals at W1B 4DY and WC2H 7DX, and private addresses close by.
Chinatown, after dark
Tell the host where you are staying in Chinatown and when. The rest is arranged quietly.