Holborn, WC1V and WC2A, a minute from the escalators

The Central line puts Holborn six minutes from Oxford Circus and four from Tottenham Court Road. The Piccadilly puts it two minutes from Covent Garden and five from Green Park. Chancery Lane is five minutes east on foot for the far end of WC2A, and Covent Garden station is seven minutes south west when the gates at Holborn are busy.

Companions living in W1 or WC2 reach this district in fifteen to twenty minutes door to door, which is about as fast as anything gets in the middle of London. From further out, thirty five minutes is the honest figure. Whichever it is, the confirmation names the arrival time rather than a window, and the journey sits inside the fee.

WC1V runs along High Holborn past Red Lion Square and up to Theobalds Road, with Gray's Inn behind it and a gate that shuts at night. WC2A is quieter still: Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London and empties completely after dark, with Sir John Soane's Museum along the north side holding a sarcophagus in the basement and more marbles than shelf space.

Between the two, Chancery Lane runs the old boundary line. Everything here is walkable in ten minutes and the whole district changes character at about half past seven, which is what makes the timing on this page different from anywhere else on the site.

WC1V 7EN is built around a courtyard entered through a stone arch, and the bar beside its lobby keeps a fire lit under a long marble stair. WC1V 7BD has a ground floor that stays busy until late, which is useful when you would rather an arrival passed unremarked.

WC2B 4DD stands on the Aldwych crescent six minutes south, its palm court lit from a glazed ceiling. WC2B 4BZ is a minute further on, and WC1B 5BE is seven minutes north into Bloomsbury when WC1V has no rooms. Serviced flats on Bedford Row and around Red Lion Square are visited on exactly the same terms. None of these buildings has an arrangement with this desk, and none is asked for one.

Until about seven the pavements belong to people carrying paper. Between seven and eight the offices empty, the gates of the Inns close, and by half past eight the streets are as quiet as anywhere in central London. A booking made for eight in WC2A arrives into a completely different district from one made for six.

Most guests here take the ninety minute booking at £400, or two hours at £500, on a weeknight, because the morning matters. The ten hour night at £1,800 goes to people who have worked out that a proper night makes an early start easier rather than harder, and it is taken more often in this postcode than the timing would suggest.

Four things: the hour, the length, the building and a name or a sentence. Romilly is at the desk at every hour and the reply takes ten to fifteen minutes on WhatsApp or Telegram, with the arrival time in it. The fee goes to her in person once she is in the room.

One check runs afterwards: the full name the booking is held in, the hotel and the room number, matched once in the same thread and then used for nothing. It takes a line. For a residence, give the street, the block and the floor instead.

Nora is the most curious company in WC1, reads buildings for pleasure and is the right choice for a district full of them. Patricia wastes nothing and misses nothing, for exactly as long as she is booked.

From either side, Nancy walks up from Covent Garden in ten minutes, Tina does it faster, Danielle comes over from Bloomsbury and is unhurried in a quiet room, Roxi prefers a snug bar with no music, and Michelle crosses from Chelsea and hosts an evening properly. The full list sits on On The Books and everyone travels here on the same figures.

Half past seven, a drink in the courtyard bar off High Holborn with the fire lit. Quarter past eight, eight minutes on foot north to a dining room on a street that goes pedestrian in the evenings. Ten, a nightcap in a room low enough to touch the ceiling, where the regulars have long since loosened their collars. Quarter to eleven, back across the Fields with the plane trees moving overhead and nobody else on the path.

Three hours at £700 carries that whole sequence. Two hours at £500 covers the dinner and the walk. The four hour dinner date at £900 is the booking for the night before something you would rather not be tired for.

North across Theobalds Road the garden squares of Bloomsbury start within five minutes. South west down Kingsway the Piazza and the theatres of Covent Garden are eight minutes away. The Strand, Aldwych and Chancery Lane all sit on the edges of these two postcodes, and the City begins where Holborn Viaduct crosses. The wider picture, and how this corner connects to the western half, is on the Central London page.