The familiar hour: warmth that reads like a second evening, not a first
Some guests do not want an occasion. They want the version of an evening where two people fall into conversation quickly, where nobody is performing and where the first ten minutes feel like the fortieth. That is what this page describes, and it is a matter of manner rather than of hours or figures.
Nothing about it costs more. An hour is £400 here as everywhere else in the edit, and the familiar hour is simply how certain companions naturally are.
What it looks like from the corridor
She arrives dressed the way you would dress to meet someone you already know, which in this neighbourhood usually means well but without ceremony. Her coat goes over a chair. She asks about the day you have had and listens to the answer. If there is a bottle open she will have a glass and if there is not she will not mind. Ten minutes in, the conversation has usually stopped being an introduction and started being a conversation. That is the whole of the trick, and it is not really a trick at all.
Why the longer lengths suit it better
An hour is perfectly possible and a great many are booked. Two hours at £750 is where this particular manner has room to show itself, because ease takes a little time and an hour spends some of it settling in. Three hours at £1,050 or a dinner at £1,300 turn the same evening into something that feels entirely unplanned, which is a strange thing to arrange in advance and yet exactly what most guests are asking for.
Afternoons count, and often work best
Two in the afternoon is an underrated hour for this. A walk through Hyde Park when the light is low, coffee on Pavilion Road, an hour at the Saatchi Gallery and a drink afterwards costs precisely what an evening costs and feels a good deal less like an appointment. Sunday lunch belongs in the same category. If your week has a gap in daylight rather than after dark, use it, and tell Rosie so she can suggest whoever enjoys that kind of afternoon most.
What does not change
Warmth is not access. The commission covers her time and her company, exactly as every other page on this site does, and nothing further is available at any length or any figure. Her first name is all you will ever need, and yours is all she will ask for. The ease you are booking exists because both sides keep to that, and a companion who feels comfortable is a companion who is genuinely good company.
Four plates with an unforced warmth
Lucy is 24, petite, based in Pimlico and about as easy to talk to as anyone in the edit. Molly is bright, dark haired and laughs first. Tina is 26 and 158cm, quick, interested and never short of something to say. Laura is 25, green eyed and unusually good at making an unfamiliar room feel like somewhere you have both been before. None of them require warming up, which is rather the point.
Asking for it in the first message
You do not need a phrase for this. Tell Rosie you would like an unhurried evening with someone easy to be around and she will know exactly which names to offer. Add the hour, the address and the length, send it, and she will come back with two or three suggestions rather than one, which is usually the better way to choose. If you have read a profile in the Faces pages and liked her, say the name instead.
Meeting again
The second booking with the same companion is, in most guests' experience, better than the first, for the obvious reason. Rosie keeps no dossier and asks nothing about your history, but she does remember who you booked and will tell you honestly whether that name is free when you are next in Belgravia. Several guests here book one companion and nobody else, sometimes for years, and that is the quietest compliment the edit receives.
Faces for the familiar hour
Chosen for this kind of evening from what each of them enjoys. Every face in the edit may still be asked for.
The familiar hour, explained
4 answers. Tap a question to open it; anything missing, ask Rosie directly.
No. The tariff is identical: £400 for an hour, £750 for two, £1,300 for a four hour dinner. Manner is not priced in this edit.
Yes. A great many of these bookings are walks, lunches, galleries and afternoons that finish somewhere quiet. Every booking is outcall, so the setting is entirely yours to choose.
As you would with anyone you had just met and hoped to like. Be on time, be yourself, offer her a drink and let the conversation do the work. That is genuinely all of it.
Of course, and it is encouraged. Ask Rosie for her by name and she will tell you honestly whether she is free on the date you want rather than steering you elsewhere.
Other ways to spend the evening
- 01The Bulgari in Knightsbridge, mahogany and silver behind a door that never raises its voice5 min readThe Bulgari keeps its glamour indoors: dark wood, polished silver, a long pool and a private screen below street level. How to plan an evening date that suits its hush.
- 02Around the terminus: Victoria's hotels, from grand to practical, in honest order5 min readFrom The Goring's garden to the railway hotel on the platforms, the hotels around Victoria station ranked for late arrivals, dawn trains to Gatwick and an easy evening.
Describe the evening in a single line.
A dinner, a gala, a quiet night in the suite: describe it to Rosie and she will name whoever suits it best.