Off the Paddington train, checked in by the arch six minutes later

The quickest is the cab rank on the Eastbourne Terrace side of the station. A black cab runs down Praed Street, turns right onto the Edgware Road and reaches the arch in about six minutes when the traffic is kind, a little longer on a Friday evening. The second is one stop on the Circle or the Hammersmith and City line to Edgware Road, then a straight walk south of about six minutes. The third is on foot along Sussex Gardens and Connaught Street, roughly twenty minutes with a small case, and pleasant on a dry evening.

Whichever you take, send the desk your message before you leave the platform. By the time the key card is in your hand, the reply has normally arrived with the name of the companion who is free and the time she can be with you.

Guests who choose the arch over a station hotel usually give one of three reasons. Their meetings sit in Mayfair or around Bond Street, which is an easy walk from here. They want the park on the doorstep for a morning run. Or they are flying out on the Elizabeth line from Bond Street, which reaches Heathrow without a change, so the arch is as convenient for the airport as Paddington itself.

The trade off is traffic. The junction slows badly on Saturday afternoons and while the winter fair is on in Hyde Park, and that is the one time a start booked an hour or two ahead is worth the planning.

Behind the arch on the Paddington side sits a small grid of streets that most visitors walk straight past. Connaught Street and Porchester Place hold independent restaurants, a wine bar or two and a handful of neighbourhood shops, all in W2 and a few minutes from the hotels on Great Cumberland Place. For a dinner date that feels local rather than touristic, it is the obvious choice, and a table there rarely needs booking weeks ahead.

Seymour Place, just across the Edgware Road, offers a second set of small dining rooms if Connaught Street is full. Either way, the walk back to the hotel takes under ten minutes.

On a summer evening the tables outside on Connaught Street fill early, so a booking made before you leave the train is worth the minute it takes.

21:10, the train from the west pulls into platform one. 21:14, message the desk from the concourse with the companion, the hotel, the start and the length. 21:20, the cab turns onto the Edgware Road. 21:27, the reply names who is coming and wants the name on your reservation plus the room. 21:30, key card in hand at The Cumberland or the Montcalm. 22:15, a knock at the door, and two hours at £500 begin with her journey already included.

No companion lives at the arch itself, but it sits between three home districts. Laura, Nora and Vanessa come down from Paddington by the same six minute route you took. Liana and Rosa cross from Marylebone to the north east, and Angelika and Samanta come up Park Lane from Mayfair.

For a start after ten at night, Molly comes over from Soho in about a quarter of an hour.

If the hotel is on the park rather than the junction, the Hyde Park page covers the north side terraces and the Park Lane frontage. For the conference hotels further up the road, see Edgware Road, and for a room right beside the platforms, the Paddington page lists the station hotels.