Lancaster Gate escorts in W2, where the hotels look into the park

Go through the gate opposite the station and the Italian Gardens spread out at the head of the Long Water: ornamental basins, fountains, urns and balustrades laid out around 1860, still the most formal corner of Kensington Gardens. Follow the water south and the bronze of Peter Pan stands on the western bank, a short walk from the house on the same road where Barrie wrote about him.

Behind the terraces the streets turn residential almost at once. Craven Hill, Leinster Terrace and Porchester Terrace hold flats and mews houses, and Bathurst Street runs north to Sussex Gardens. Kensington Gardens locks its gates at dusk, after which the Bayswater Road settles into a steady stream of black cabs and night buses heading for Marble Arch.

Royal Lancaster London is the landmark here, a tower on Lancaster Terrace right beside the station, whose higher rooms take in Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and the skyline beyond. Its bars sit on the lower floors, which makes it an obvious place to meet for a first drink. Along the terrace to the west, Park Grand London Lancaster Gate and Corus Hotel Hyde Park fill converted Victorian houses facing the gardens, smaller and quieter than the tower.

Companions walk into these hotels as invited visitors of their guests and in no other capacity. We have no agreement with any of them, and the evening never calls for one: a guest names a visitor, the visitor arrives, and reception sees the same thing every night of the week.

Lancaster Gate, on the Central line, is 1 minute from the hotel doors. Queensway, one stop along on the same line, is roughly 6 minutes west beside the park railings. Paddington, for the Elizabeth line, the airport express and mainline trains, is around 7 minutes north by way of Westbourne Terrace or Craven Terrace.

Eastbound, the Central line runs directly to Marble Arch, Bond Street and Oxford Circus, which is also how several companions arrive from the West End. The whole district is Zone 1, and so her fare never appears on your total.

One message sets it going. Tell the desk who, when, for how long and at which hotel, and look for an answer within 10 to 15 minutes. Once the companion is confirmed, the chat needs only your full name and the number of your room, and then the park side booking is set.

She normally arrives in under an hour. Lancaster Gate lies on a direct route for several companions: Thea cycles or takes a cab up from South Kensington in about 15 minutes, Margo crosses the park from Knightsbridge in much the same time, and Tiffany rides the Central line straight in once office hours are over. The rest of the fee changes hands in cash at the start, or goes by transfer ahead of time.

On a summer evening: 18:30, the Italian Gardens while the light lasts, a slow circuit of the fountains. 19:15, out through the gate, across the road and into the hotel bar for a drink with the park in the window. 20:00, dinner nearby, in the hotel itself or a short stroll into Bayswater. 21:45, coffee, or a nightcap back at the bar. 22:30, the booking closes after four hours, the £900 dinner date. The same outline without dinner, two hours at £500, suits a guest with an early start.

No companion is based at Lancaster Gate itself. The closest live in Paddington, about 7 minutes away on foot: Laura, whose favourite way into the park begins at the riding stables tucked behind Bathurst Street, along with Nora and Vanessa.

Any of the twenty eight women on the lineup will come to a Lancaster Gate hotel under the same terms, whichever district she sets out from.

Hyde Park begins across the road and has its own page for the hotels around its edges. Bayswater and Queensway carry on west along the railings. Paddington lies to the north, beyond Sussex Gardens.