Nora, companion in London Fields

About Nora

London Fields in September is dogs, bikes and the last of the light going through the plane trees, and Nora will be crossing it at a pace that makes you hurry. Hazel eyes, honey blonde hair worn long, and an athletic 166 cm frame. She moves like somebody who runs the park loop several mornings a week, which she does. Simple clothes, well fitted, and a jacket she can put over the back of a chair and forget about.

Mid twenties, fluent English, with a straightforwardness that clears the air early. Nora says what she thinks and then leaves space for you to disagree, which very few people actually do. She swims in the lido from April to October and describes the first week of it with real relish. She is unshockable, kind about it, and quietly funny once the evening has found its feet.

Bright on Westgate Street is her table of choice: a small room under the railway with a wine list that changes constantly and a kitchen that does four things properly. From there the park is ninety seconds and the station is two minutes. London Fields has no hotel of its own, which suits her, so evenings here are flats and long walks. She lives near Paddington and comes across on the Elizabeth line and the Overground, forty minutes give or take.

London Fields is E8 at its quietest, nine minutes from Hackney Central and two from the platform. Every fare is spelled out on rates. Give booking a start time and Nell will confirm the rest.

Booking her

Nell needs a start time, an address and a length, and confirms all three in writing. Nora is a strong choice for a longer evening, since nothing she enjoys around here can be done in an hour.

Every figure she works to is public on the board, and the steps sit on the booking page.

An evening with Nora

She likes a table booked early and a night with nothing after it. One glass at the small room under the railway while the kitchen is still calm, then food that arrives without announcement, then the part she actually turns up for, which is the talking.

Nora is direct in a way that makes an evening move quickly. She will tell you when something is not working and she will be right. Afterwards there is the park in the dark, which is safer and prettier than people from outside E8 assume, and the walk along Martello Street with the studios lit up behind their shutters. She never suggests one more bar. When an evening is done she says so, and the honesty of that is oddly the best part of her.