East London: Shoreditch to Romford

East London has changed faster than any other part of the city in the last twenty years, and the way a booking works here changed with it. Shoreditch and Canary Wharf are effectively central now. Everything past the North Circular is a different proposition entirely.

The three east Londons

It helps to stop thinking of the east as one place.

There is the inner east, which is central in everything but postcode. There is the middle, which runs on the Central line and the Overground. And there is outer east Essex, which is a set of towns that happen to have London postcodes.

The booking works differently in each.

The inner east

Shoreditch is a mile and a half from the City and busier at midnight than at midday. Bethnal Green is two miles out on the Central line, Hackney three.

Canary Wharf is the interesting one. Five miles east on the map, twenty minutes from the West End by Jubilee line, and full of hotel rooms and corporate flats. It generates more bookings than anywhere else in east London by a distance, largely because of who stays there midweek.

All of these are ordinary outcall territory. See incall or outcall.

The middle

Stratford, Leyton and Walthamstow sit five to seven miles out along the Central and Victoria lines.

Stratford is worth singling out. Since the Elizabeth line it is eleven minutes to Bond Street, which makes it better connected to the middle of London than plenty of places closer in. If you are here, coming in is genuinely quick.

Outer east

Ilford, Barking, East Ham, Dagenham, Romford and Chingford run from eight to thirteen miles out.

This is where the outcall question gets real. At those distances an escort is spending as long travelling as she is with you, which is why our guide on booking outside central London is blunt about the three mile rule.

The good news is the Elizabeth line, which changed this corner of London completely. Romford to Tottenham Court Road is thirty two minutes without changing. That is faster than a lot of zone two journeys and it turns coming in from a chore into a non issue.

What works from the east

Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Canary Wharf. Book an outcall and think no further about it.

Stratford, Leyton, Walthamstow. Workable with a day’s notice, and the trains in are quick enough that both options are genuinely open.

Ilford outwards. Come in. It is faster than you think and the choice is several times wider.

If you are coming in

The Elizabeth line puts you at Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road or Bond Street, which is about as useful as a train can be.

Liverpool Street is the City, which empties after six and is one of the quieter places in London to spend an evening for exactly that reason. See the City after six.

Bond Street puts you in Mayfair and Marylebone, which is where a good part of the roster actually is. Our post on Marylebone and Fitzrovia covers the ground.

The Shoreditch problem

Worth a warning, since it is the one part of the east people assume is easy.

Shoreditch at eleven on a Saturday is thousands of people on the pavement, and the streets around Old Street and Rivington are as watched as anywhere in London. It feels anonymous and is not. If discretion is the point, a weeknight is a different place entirely, and our post on the quietest parts of central London explains why crowds do not equal cover.

Late

The Central, Victoria and Jubilee lines all run Night Tube on Fridays and Saturdays, which makes the east better served late than the south by a wide margin. The Elizabeth line does not. See getting around late at night.

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