Hi,
I will be staying at the Monatuge near the British Museum. Planning on doing a lot of walking. How are the areas to walk-Soho, Covent Garden, Mayfair, Bloomsbury late at night. I like to walk rather than taking a taxi. Thanks

Soho and Covent Garden are busy well into the wee hours, so they're fine for night walking. I'm not familiar with Bloomsbury or Mayfair, but from all the feedback and articles I've seen and hear, they're fine too.

They are safe. Mayfair and Bloomsbury side roads are a little dull, and the traffic there moves fast. To go into bars upstairs or downstairs in Soho, or into Soho clubs with hostesses, is unsafe: you may end with a huge bill. But bars on street level in Soho are reasonable.

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I felt perfectly safe walking at night.

Have fun!

Completely safe Keena! Soho/Covent Garden are crowded at night and you won't be alone in any of the areas. Nice choice of hotel, btw. My mum and I had tea at the Montague 3 years ago!

Ben, why doesn't the government put a stop to the bars in Soho ripping off unsuspecting folks?

The huge bar tab stories are very common. Are the police on the take or are the bars ownwed by rich people with political connections?

Degas, caveat emptor. Why suggest a conspiracy?

Degas: Ben is talking about "girlie" bars in Soho. The same sort of places all over the world - even in Florida - where you pay for the "play". I am sure you won't be tempted to go into them so don't worry about being ripped off.

Since John Stuart Mill British government has tended to assume that market forces should be given free play, and people who want to buy sexual attention, at a girlie bar or in a brothel, should be reluctantly allowed to do so. This doctrine was abandoned during Hitler?s war, and was moderated from 47 to 51, but rides high under Mr Blair. That is the ideological background. The practical one is drafting and policing a useful law. Shall government name the prices of drinks (with a review board to meet each year), set rules for how many inches of leg or bosom shall be exposed, or how close a staff member shall sit to a customer ? Then I suppose we need inspectors with tape measures: nice work if you can get it. A memory in our discussions is Prohibition in the USA, a failure.

Two years ago the Metropolitan Police were handing out leaflets with a map of Soho and warning against going upstairs or downstairs there (how odd that stairs should be a measure of grubbiness). I think they have ceased.

How unsuspecting are the folks ? Surrounded by photos of floosies, a heavy at the door says: Come on in, lovely girls. The folks go upstairs, are led to the bar, and an under-clad and over-endowed woman asks them to buy her a drink. Do they think this is tea with the vicar ?

We do have police scandals, from the London Airport police twenty years ago (the whole force was sacked) to recurrent cases of bribery and collusion with criminals, and they fill the front pages of dumb newspapers that I do not read. But in Soho nobody recently has found the police on the take or bars owned by rich people with political connections. For a politician the game is not worth the candle. Five years go Mr Blair banned adverts for tobacco at sports places, but made an exception for tracks where they raced gas-guzzling and noisy motor cars. In Britain that racing belonged to a nasty millionaire who the newspapers found had made a million pound gift to Labour party funds. Mr Blair had to hand the gift back. I read this as saying we have a scandal-hunting press who do their job.

Ben Haines

Quite. The first rule of any market is 'Caveat emptor' - 'buyer beware' or 'you're on your own, pal'. It doesn't take a great deal of savoir faire to recognise that a place that doesn't have a street frontage and employs people to invite you in with the promise of 'lovely girls' might not be quite as trustworthy as one that you can see inside and has an open door..

>...a place that doesn't have a street frontage and employs people to invite you in with the promise of 'lovely girls' might not be quite as trustworthy as one that you can see inside and has an open door..<

You mean she wasn't a virgin?

Now, now. Even in English, there are some rules of agreement and they would make it quite clear that in that sentence 'one' must refer back to the previous singular noun, you know. That was more of a tease than they are, though I would hope you wouldn't present a bill for £200 with a very large man standing behind you.

Hi Keena, I have stayed in Bloomsbury half a dozen times and agree with the comments that's it's safe to walk around, but would temper that by suggesting some common sense too. i.e. don't wear flashy jewelry or carry a purse - I always wear a money belt under my sweater and never carry a purse. Also, don't go into the Squares at night - especially Russell Square. Most of the squares are locked at a certain time anyway, but it's best to stay out of them after dark. That said, have fun! Carol