London in the Rain

It rains in London about one day in three, and rather more of them between October and March. An evening built on the assumption that you will be walking between places is an evening with a hole in it. Here is the version that works anyway.

Pick a building, not a street

The single most useful adjustment. Instead of a bar here, a restaurant there and somewhere else afterwards, put as much of the evening as possible under one roof.

A hotel with a decent bar and a decent dining room does the whole thing without anybody going outside. That is unglamorous on a clear night and extremely welcome on a wet one, and it is why hotel dining rooms are so much better than their reputation. Our post on choosing a restaurant covers what to look for.

Or pick a very small area

If you would rather move about, make the moves short. Marylebone and Mayfair both hold a bar, a restaurant and a hotel within a few minutes of each other, which turns a downpour from a problem into a brisk walk.

What does not work in the rain is an evening spread across three postcodes, because cabs become theoretical the moment it starts. See getting around late at night.

The cab problem, specifically

Rain is the one condition that reliably breaks London transport. Demand doubles, surge pricing arrives, and the wait goes from four minutes to twenty.

Three things help. Order earlier than you think you need to. Walk to a main road rather than waiting on a side street, because the driver can actually reach you. And remember that the tube is entirely unaffected by weather, which on a wet Friday makes it faster than anything above ground.

What it does to an incall

Makes it the better option, frankly. An incall in the rain is one journey to one door, and once you are inside the weather stops being part of the evening.

An outcall means somebody travelling across London in it, which is fine but worth acknowledging. If it is pouring, allow more time than the app suggests and do not treat ten minutes late as a problem. See incall or outcall.

Practical bits

• Take a real coat and an umbrella. Arriving damp is a poor start and entirely avoidable.
• Leave the umbrella at the door, not in the room. Small thing, noticed by everyone.
• Shoes. London pavements in the wet are slick, and the walk from the cab is short. Not the night for anything with a leather sole.
• Order the cab from inside. Obvious, routinely ignored.

Our post on what to wear covers the rest, and most of it holds in any weather.

The upside nobody mentions

Wet weeknights are the quietest London gets. Restaurants that need booking a week ahead have tables. Hotel bars are half empty. The streets are yours.

If the evening is going to be indoors anyway, rain is close to the ideal condition for it, and the city is a good deal more pleasant when everybody else has stayed at home. Our post on booking around the London calendar makes the same argument about January.

The short version

One building, or one small area. Order the cab early or take the tube. And take the coat, because you will need it and the evening is better if you are dry.

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