Got that Monday feeling

What were London's party elite doing on Monday night? The ironing? Watching University Challenge?

Fretting over the four days separating them from their next weekend? Not a bit of it.

On Monday night the beautiful people were largin' it at the Lord of the Rings premiere with scant regard for the fact that it was a school night.

Surely a one-off? A blip on the social calendar? Nope. Take a look at last month's diary. The Evening Standard Theatre Awards: Monday. The first night of Kenneth Branagh's The Play What I Wrote: Monday. Harpers & Queen's party for David Bailey at Claridge's: you guessed it.

'If you throw a party at the beginning of the week, then you're going to get the people who you really want turning up,' says Harpers editor Lucy Yeomans. 'I think, in the wake of 11 September, the new mood is towards smaller, more intimate parties where you don't necessarily invite all the usual party-scene suspects. Instead, you make sure that the people you really want to be there have a really nice time. The last guest didn't leave Claridge's until 3.30am so the fact that we chose a Monday night didn't seem to worry anybody unduly.'

Nigel Peters, co-owner of party-production company Peters & Beach (which has organised events for Prada, Gucci, Sky, Buena Vista and Working Title Films) agrees that London parties should be held early in the week. 'Our clients aren't going to attract their target guests at the weekend,' he says. 'People are doing family things, or they're out of London.'

Of course, there are sections of the community who cottoned onto the hipness of Mondays ages ago. The very people responsible for making London's nightlife tick - chefs, waiters and barmen - consider it the night to go out. 'The biggest deals in the hospitality industry are done on Monday nights because it's traditionally been a quiet night for restaurants, bars and hotels,' confirms Robbie Bargh, who runs hospitality consulting company The Gorgeous Group. 'Zeta at the Park Lane Hilton and Lab in Old Compton Street are both excellent for Monday-night networking.'

Then there's the ink lust responsible for placing opening nights and film premieres at the beginning of the week. Reviews of your play stand a better chance of making it into the Sunday papers if you invite the critics early in the week and, if a star walks down a red carpet on a Monday night, there's the whole week for the picture to make it into the tabloids, thus allowing maximum publicity before the movie's Friday release.

And for everybody who is desperately trying to get their hands on the much sought-after pink pound, Mondays are also crucial. The G-A-Y Pink Pounder at the Mean Fiddler happens then, as does gay night Popcorn! at Heaven. 'The predatory older crowd tend to go out at the weekends,' explains Richard Bence, lifestyle editor of Attitude magazine. 'That means the bright, young things avoid it in favour of club nights earlier in the week.'

But it's not just gay Londoners who come out to play on Mondays. City dwellers in general are fast realising that Monday night is their night. Fewer Bridge and Tunnel shoppers in the West End, more chance of getting a table at The Ivy and - of course - the arrival of the new stock at Zara all serve to make the beginning of the week infinitely more desirable than the tail end.

So, as far as we can see, there's absolutely no reason to stay in on Mondays. The only possible excuse you could have is that you don't want to miss Cold Feet but (a) you should have got to grips with your video by now, and (b) it's shown on Sunday nights too and, frankly, if you're staying in on any two consecutive nights to watch the same TV show then your social life is veering sharply towards the sad/non-existent and needs urgent review. When you roll into work next Tuesday looking bleary-eyed and befuddled, pay no attention to the old-fashioned 'what on earth were you doing out on a school night?' merchants. They'll catch on soon enough.