Screens off at nine: what E14 still offers a desk on New York time

The clock the evening actually runs on

American equity markets close at four in the afternoon in New York, which is 21:00 in London for most of the year. For a desk that covers them, that is when the day stops, give or take the quarter of an hour it takes to sign off, check the marks and ride down forty floors. The evening starts at about 21:15, on an estate that has largely gone home.

Twice a year the gap shrinks. America moves its clocks forward on the second Sunday of March and Britain on the last Sunday, so for two or three weeks in March the close comes at 20:00 London time. In autumn it happens in reverse: Britain goes back on the last Sunday of October, America a week later, and for that week the close is at 20:00 again. Circle those weeks. An hour earlier is the difference between a late dinner and a proper one.

Then there are the days New York does not open at all, or shuts at lunchtime. On American market holidays, Thanksgiving and Independence Day among them, a New York desk in London has an ordinary evening. On the half days, the Friday after Thanksgiving and usually Christmas Eve, the close comes at 18:00 London time. Those are the evenings to book for seven like everybody else.

The estate at a quarter past nine

By 21:15 the squares are lit and nearly empty. The after work crowd came and went between six and eight, the second sittings in the restaurants are well into their main courses, and the bars along the dock are winding down while the offices above them are still bright. It surprises people the first time. A district this busy at noon ought to be busier at night, and it is not.

In practice that means a late table has to be booked, not found. Kitchens on the estate tend to take last orders earlier than those in the West End, and walking in at half past nine is a gamble. Book in the afternoon for 21:30, tell the restaurant you are coming off the close and may be ten minutes late, and most will hold the table without complaint. A room that knows you are coming is a room that keeps its kitchen open for you.

Steak rooms and grills handle a late table best, because their cooking is quick and their kitchens are used to it. Hawksmoor at Wood Wharf, under ten minutes east of the Jubilee line on foot, is the obvious one on the estate. Boisdale in Cabot Place is the other, with the advantage that the band may still be playing when you sit down.

Bars that earn the lift

Not many, and that is not a complaint. Bokan, on the top floors of the tower across the dock on Marsh Wall, is the one that repays the trip: a bar near the top of a tower, looking back north at the estate you have just left, with the floors you spent the day on lit up across the water. From the Jubilee line it is about ten minutes on foot over the South Quay footbridge, then a lift. Go early in the evening's two hours, while the view is still the point.

The hotel bars on the estate are the late fallback. They go on serving their own residents after the dockside bars have stopped, which makes them useful towards midnight, and a hotel bar at 23:00 is quieter than anywhere on the estate at 19:00. If the evening is going to end in a hotel, it may as well take its last drink in one.

Beyond that the answer is to leave. A few stops on the Jubilee line reaches London Bridge, where the bars are only getting going, and a car through the Limehouse Link reaches the City in under twenty minutes once the traffic has gone.

Two hours before midnight, by the minute

Here is the shape that works for a desk on the close. 21:15, out of the building. 21:30, at the table, with a companion already there and a drink ordered. 21:30 to 22:45, dinner, with the day left at the door. 22:45, the walk, along the dock or up to the bar at Bokan. 23:30, the end of two hours, with enough of the night left to sleep before Tokyo starts lighting up phones.

Two hours at £500 is the usual length and the right one. Three at £700 makes sense when the plan involves going west. The night out after eleven is the format written for exactly this kind of evening, when the start is late and the estate has already put its chairs on the tables. On Fridays and Saturdays the Jubilee line runs through the night, which widens the choice at the end of the week.

Book it in the afternoon and move it if you must. With three clear hours of notice a change is free, so the moment to decide whether tonight's close will run over is six o'clock, not nine.

Nights when the close runs over

Some nights the screens stay on past nine: a heavy expiry, a month end, a client who rings at five to. The evening survives if it was built with slack in it. On any night that looks like trouble, put the table at 21:45 instead of 21:30 and tell the desk why. A companion who knows the start may slide by a quarter of an hour is not left standing in a lobby wondering.

And if the night falls apart entirely, say so as soon as you know. With three clear hours a cancellation costs nothing; inside two hours it costs half the booking. Most people who read this note can do that sum faster than it took to write it.

Three who keep late hours well

Late evenings suit some companions far better than others. On the late twenties column, Samanta takes weekday dinners from half past seven onwards, orders quickly, sits facing the room and is very hard to impress with anything except competence, which makes her restful after a long session. Milena is a late supper person by temperament and entirely comfortable with the long pause that follows a day spent talking. From the early twenties, Luna starts at about nine as a rule and is at her best after midnight, which helps when two hours turn out not to be enough.

The estate is mapped on the Canary Wharf page, and the City of London page covers the rooms a short cab ride west. If the late table is at Boisdale, the note on its band and terrace says where to sit. Send Maude the table time and the likely finish and she will build the evening back from midnight.