Berkeley Square, W1J, and the private addresses on its quieter sides

The square is built around a garden of very old planes, and that garden is why the traffic never settles into one direction. Along the east the offices have swallowed most of the original houses. On the west, Lansdowne House holds the corner and the fronts above it have kept their proportions. Hill Street and Charles Street lead away into a quarter gone quiet by nine.

The famous doors are all on one corner, and our guests use them. What they book us for is generally the part before, or the part after: an hour in a flat on Hill Street, a supper on Charles Street, a car ordered at one in the morning.

Five hotels lie within about six minutes on foot. A companion knows each lobby and which lift to take. No hotel named here has been approached by us, and none holds any relationship with the house; where a guest sleeps is a guest's own business.

Stratton Street, at the square's eastern top, carries The May Fair Hotel, W1J 8LT, two minutes away and awake longest of the five. The Chesterfield Mayfair, W1J 5EB, is on Charles Street itself, small and panelled. Flemings Mayfair, W1J 7BH, occupies a run of houses on Half Moon Street. Six minutes north west at Carlos Place stands The Connaught, W1K 2AL, and about the same distance east, Brown's Hotel, W1S 4BP.

Green Park is 4 minutes south, taking Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria trains, and it is the station a companion uses when she is not in a car. Bond Street, 6 minutes north, brings the Central and Elizabeth lines. Hyde Park Corner sits 10 minutes west, along Curzon Street.

After eleven a car is easier than a platform. The first two zones cost you nothing on top of the fee; farther out, the return fare is named in the same message as the hour.

A flat asks for a little more care than a hotel room, though not much. Octavia wants the number, the floor, whatever is painted by the bell, and whether the building keeps a porter. If it does, say whether you would rather your companion were announced at the desk or came straight up. Both are ordinary. Neither is ever remarked upon.

In a hotel, the name you are booked under and the room number are the whole of it, written down once. Either way she dresses for the building rather than the street, and the figure goes to her by hand as she comes in, after which neither of you mentions it.

Residents of the flats along the west side, who would like an evening without arranging any part of it themselves. Guests of the rooms at the far corner, before or afterwards. Partners in the firms that occupy the east side, in London for two nights and staying on Stratton Street. And, as often as any of them, people who live elsewhere in W1 and simply like Charles Street at dinner.

Seven o'clock. A guest writes from a flat on Hill Street: two hours, supper somewhere walkable, a companion who will not mind that he has been in meetings since seven that morning. Octavia suggests Lea, who is quick, light, and entirely unbothered by tiredness in other people.

Half past eight. They eat on Charles Street at a table by the window. She straightens the flowers twice without appearing to notice, and talks him out of a poor decision involving paint charts. At half past ten they walk once round the garden and she takes a car south. Two hours, £1,100.

Angelika, Samanta and Luna all live in Mayfair and can reach the square within minutes of a confirmation. From Belgravia, ten minutes away through Hyde Park Corner, come Violetta, Patricia and Lea. Molly and Jasmin cross from Soho, which at that hour is nearer than a map suggests.

Mount Street and its gardens lie five minutes north west, up Carlos Place. Albemarle Street and Dover Street drop east towards Piccadilly. Green Park opens four minutes south, and the district at large is described on the Mayfair page. Terms do not change between them.