
01Section
Harley Street and the consulting-room day
The medical streets run north to south in long terraces of converted townhouses, most with several practices behind one door and none with parking. Harley Street, Wimpole Street, Devonshire Place and Weymouth Street are lined with permit and pay bays that are occupied from early morning, and enforcement along them is constant.
Appointments here do not keep to the clock. A consultation booked for forty minutes can finish in twenty or run to ninety, and a patient standing on the pavement afterwards has no useful options. The arrangement that works is a waiting booking: the chauffeur sets down at the door, holds on Devonshire Street, Bentinck Street or in the nearest legal bay, and returns within a couple of minutes of a message.
For clients travelling after a procedure the return journey is planned to be gentle rather than quick. The chauffeur assists at both ends, the route avoids the heavier speed cushions on the residential streets, and the cabin is prepared before the patient reaches the car.
- No parking at consulting-room addresses; permit and pay bays only
- Waiting bookings rather than two separate transfers
- Holding streets: Devonshire Street, Bentinck Street, Weymouth Mews
- Assistance to the door at both ends where it is wanted









