How to nail a gals’ night out in Covent Garden

Even if you’ve never been much of a girly girl, the occasional girls’ night is very necessary. But from remembering the Tube is exit only to preparing your house for a girly pres, here’s everything you need to know about your girly night out.

It will take you all day to get ready

It is not a true gals’ night unless you spend the entire day getting ready. Start at the nearest beauty salon to get your nails done (you need the whole day to adjust to the extra length), full on acrylics with jewels gives an expensive, if slightly trashy, aesthetic. Getting dressed with fake nails is actually more difficult than you would imagine, especially when doing up buttons or putting in contact lenses. I hadn’t realised that girls night came with the risk of blindness, and not the good kind you get after too many bombs. Who knew the sacrifices people made for beauty?!

Just regular gals having some gally fun at their favourite nail salon

Apparently it takes four second year UCL students, a pair of tweezers AND the instructions to figure out how to apply fake eyelashes, and even then, they were far from on fleek, so I suggest practicing a few nights in advance. Multiple pairs of hands were then needed to strap everyone into their heels. It will quickly become clear this is a team effort. Hair is also a very tricky manoeuvre, because once you’ve straightened or curled or crimped, you then have to somehow avoid the rain entirely, which, as any London student will know, is not as easy as it sounds. Oh and don’t forget your Michael Kors bag, you wouldn’t be a true UCL gal without one.

Practice makes pres perfect 

Meet up at the Gal Pad of your choice (a Gal Pad is any house/flat/maisonette entirely inhabited by members of the feminine gender) ready with bottles of rosé. Maybe one with a minimal amount of stairs. If you want to set the perfect tone for a drunk night out with the gals, the pre drinks playlist is a crucial step in the process. It’s just not the same downing shots alone in your room, hoping to apply your makeup before the alcohol hits. It needs to be upbeat but nostalgic, female anthems of our generation. Or just listen to Pretty Girls by Britney Spears on repeat.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Do not overestimate your ability to totter around London like you’re part of the cast of Made in Chelsea. You are not Lucy Watson – sorry. The five minute walk from our house to Mornington Crescent had never felt so treacherous: road works to avoid, cracks in the pavement, and the rosé was starting to take effect. Take advantage of the zebra crossings, because it will take you a ridiculous amount of time to stumble across the road.

Timing is essential on these nights out, you don’t want to be like us and arrive at the platform just as a train had arrived. We had to hurry to get on it and one of our gals was nearly left at the station. Once you’re on the train, standing isn’t so difficult, I mean, my feet were already aching from the walk to the station, but if we could stand still all night I would be fine. Just make sure you’re holding onto something, if you fall over now everyone will know you’re not a true gal.

Never go to Covent Garden wearing heels

One of the many casualties we encountered at Covent Garden

A favourite place to pre is Dirty Martini at Covent Garden. Sure, they make a great martini, and at two for £10 who can really argue, but don’t make the mistake of forgetting to take the cobbled stoned landscape of Covent Garden into account. Girls who are extreme amateurs at walking in heels should not frequent somewhere with such an uneven ground, we have all definitely paid for this mistake. Not only does it give a lot of opportunity for sprained ankles, but our stiletto heels continuously get stuck in the gaps in the pavement, which, although funny at first, gets annoying pretty quickly.

Book a table (important)

Nice glare there flash, thank you so much, this is definitely worthy of my insta…

OK, you should have anticipated the distinct lack of seating inside. This is central London, why didn’t we book a table?! The idea of standing all night is now looking less and less appealing. If you aren’t so lucky as to nab a seat by chance, you’ll be standing at the bar all night with swollen ankles. The bar lighting will be inevitably dim and atmospheric, nothing you could have prepared for. All you want to do is take a standard gal selfie with your martinis, but it’s impossible without the flash (and who wants to take a selfie with a flash…no one). Even with other people offering to take your photo, it just isn’t the same as the bright electric lighting of your kitchen pre drinks.

The inevitable creeps 

We were hoping that going to somewhere classier than our usual night out would save us from the occasional creepy lurker, but beware, here the creeps are camouflaged in city slicker suits (or they’ve come straight from their Law lecture…). After one particular guy complimented my friend’s cleavage, I used the “rugby player boyfriend” line (I would highly recommend this, it’s very efficient) and he left us alone.

The exit 

By the end of the night you’re probably a little drunk, drunk enough to spend more money on even more expensive cocktails as well as to numb the pain in your zeppelin size heels. However, an exit strategy is essential – don’t forget Covent Garden Tube is exit only and you’ll have to limp to Leicester Square, craving a warm bed and some oven chips.

Is it really worth it?

A girls night out at UCL really gives you respect  for those girls you see walking down Malet Place in six inch heels. Stumbling through London with my ‘gals’ was definitely a worthwhile evening out, creeps and cobblestones and blisters aside. But next time we’ll just Uber.