Frith Street, from 7pm to 3am: one street, eight hours, the order to do it in

Frith Street runs from Soho Square down to Old Compton Street, and in a few hundred yards it holds everything you need for a whole night: dinner, a world-class jazz club, champagne round the corner, and a coffee bar that does not close until 4am. It takes its name from Richard Frith, the bricklayer who developed Soho Fields, and most of its first houses went up in the 1680s. Here is how we would spend eight hours on it.

7pm: dinner at Hoppers, 49 Frith Street

Start with dinner at Hoppers, which is modelled on the village toddy shops of Sri Lanka. The menu runs to hoppers, dosas, kothus and roasts, and the drinks list is built around Genever and Arrack. It takes bookings for two to four and keeps space for walk-ins, and it serves until a quarter to eleven at weekends. Order a hopper, a kothu and an arrack cocktail, and share everything.

If you want heat instead, Barshu at 28 Frith Street has been cooking Sichuan food in Soho since 2006, and it is known for its numbing and hot dishes. Order the boldest thing on the menu and plenty of rice.

8.30pm: the walk up the street

Before the music, walk north and read the houses. The Survey of London tells the stories. At number 20, a house that has since been demolished, the young Mozart, aged about nine, lodged with his father and sister with a staymaker called Thomas Williamson in 1764 and 1765, and in January 1765 he dedicated his Opus 3 to Queen Charlotte from the house. At number 18 the law reformer Samuel Romilly was born in 1757. The painter John Constable lived in the street in 1810 and 1811, one of a long run of artists who lived here in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At number 6 the essayist William Hazlitt took lodgings in 1830 and died there that September, saying "Well, I've had a happy life". The house is now Hazlitt's hotel. Pause at the door, then turn back down the street.

9pm: the headliner at Ronnie Scott's, 47 Frith Street

Ronnie Scott's has been on Frith Street since 1965 and runs at least two shows a night. The main show is the one to book in advance, with tickets from around £30, and the room is so small there is no bad seat. Book a booth for the first set and order a drink before the band comes on, because nobody wants to be the one waving at a waiter during a solo.

11pm: champagne at Kettner's, 29 Romilly Street

Between sets, step round the corner onto Romilly Street for Kettner's, founded by the chef Auguste Kettner in 1867 and still one of the oldest restaurant names in London. Its Champagne Bar is all Art Deco antiques, and from Thursday to Saturday it stays open until 1am. If you are hungry again, the French bistro menu runs to Poulet aux Morilles. Take a seat in the Champagne Bar and order a glass of champagne.

Midnight to 3am: the Late Late Show

Back at Ronnie's, the Late Late Show is the last set of the night, about £12, and from Wednesday to Saturday the club stays open until 3am. This is when Frith Street is at its best: the crowd is musicians, regulars and people who refused to go home. Grab a seat near the stage and let it run.

3am: Bar Italia, 22 Frith Street

Finish where Soho always finishes. Bar Italia has been on Frith Street since 1949, when Lou and Caterina Polledri opened it, and it is open from 7am to 4am every day. The building has its own place in history: on 26 January 1926, John Logie Baird gave a public demonstration of television at 22 Frith Street, and a new plaque went up for the centenary in January 2026. At 3am, stand at the counter, order a double espresso, and stay for the people-watching. If you need sugar, have a cannolo too.

The order, in one line

Hoppers at seven, the plaques at half eight, Ronnie's at nine, Kettner's at eleven, the Late Late Show at midnight, Bar Italia at three. Do it on a Thursday, when the club runs late and the street is busy without being mobbed.