Nights that begin after the last table
This is the part of London that does not stop at eleven, and this is the booking for it. A night out here means meeting late, moving two or three times, and finishing somewhere neither of you planned. The figure is the ordinary one: £250 an hour, £400 for ninety minutes, £700 for three, and it is identical at one in the morning to what it was at one in the afternoon.
Nell is on the desk through the night, so a message at midnight gets an answer at midnight rather than in the morning. That matters more here than anywhere else on this site, because the good version of an east London night is almost never planned at six. Every name on the board works the same terms, but not everybody on it genuinely likes a two in the morning finish.
Suited to late nights
The districts that stay open
Dalston is the latest ground in the east: bars above shops, basements, Turkish kitchens still serving at two, and two Overground stations a minute apart. Shoreditch is busier and shallower, though the streets behind the main run are worth the walk. Hoxton sits between them with the square and the bars underneath the pavement, and it empties earlier, which some people prefer.
What a night out actually looks like
Three stops and a walk, usually. A basement where you can hear each other, then something to eat far too late, then either a room with a sound system in it or the long walk back with the vans loading and the shutters coming down. The east is compact: ten minutes on foot covers most of the distance between anywhere worth being, and that walking is the part people describe afterwards rather than the rooms.
None of it wants planning past the first stop. Book the hours, name the bar you are starting in, and let the rest of the night decide itself, which out here it reliably does. The women who take these bookings all know a door within five minutes of wherever you have ended up.
Dress, and what not to worry about
Nobody in E8 is checking your shoes. She dresses the way the district does, dark and plain and warm enough to walk in, and a companion in a long gown on Kingsland Road would be the most conspicuous thing on the street. If your night includes a room with a person on the door and a list, say so, because that is the one case where any of this changes.
The figure does not move after midnight
Not at one, not at three, not on a Saturday. Every rung is printed on rates and the late hours use the same ones as the early hours, which is not true everywhere and is worth checking wherever you book. If a night that was going to be ninety minutes wants to be three hours, that is a simple conversation and the difference is the difference between the two rungs, agreed before the hours run rather than after.
Getting home, hers and yours
At weekends the Overground runs through the night on the Windrush line, which is why nobody around here worries much about last trains. She travels by road and finishes when the booking finishes rather than cutting an evening short to catch something, and she says which one it is at the start so you are not both doing sums at half past one. If you are staying in the City, the walk back from Shoreditch is nine minutes.
Who is genuinely nocturnal
Nancy and Milena both work this stretch of road properly and know which doors look wrong for the right reasons. Tina is the reason evenings run long. Bianka is the last one in the bar to want to leave. Jasmin will suggest one more stop every single time, and is usually right. Danielle is back in the first week of October and worth the wait for a late one.
Extending properly rather than drifting
A night out is the booking most likely to want another hour, so handle it while the evening is still good. Say you would like to carry on, agree the next length, and carry on. What nobody wants is the version where the hours quietly overrun and somebody has to raise it on a pavement at three. Nell takes that message at any hour and answers it in two lines.
Two notes worth reading first
Late nights, in detail
01Can a booking start at one in the morning?
Yes, and here it is ordinary rather than a favour. The desk is staffed through the night and the figure for that hour is the same £250 it would be at teatime.
02How late can she finish?
As late as the booking runs. She travels by road, so the last train is not her problem, and she would rather agree another hour than hurry the end of a good night.
03Where should we start if I do not know the area?
Kingsland Road, and keep walking north until a door looks wrong. Failing that, tell the desk what sort of room you like and you will get two suggestions with the reasons attached.
Other nights on the book
The trains stop. We do not.
One message with the date, the time and the postcode, and the rest of the night is arranged quietly, anywhere from Hoxton down to the basin at Limehouse.