A night that starts in Soho

A night that starts in Soho rarely stays on one street. Old Compton Street is crowded from seven, the lanes off it are not, and a room above a restaurant can take longer to find than the restaurant itself. If the evening moves to a hotel, the useful detail is the name of the hotel and the time, not a description of the whole neighbourhood. Soho is for the start. Mayfair is for an evening that was decided earlier, and the river is for the walk that happens when nobody is in a hurry.

Read Mayfair after eight if the hotel is already booked.