Escorts in Paddington, W2: who is close, and how soon
Paddington has a reputation built entirely on its station, which is unfair on the rest of it. Turn north instead of south when you come out of a hotel on Praed Street and within ten minutes you are on a towpath, in the dark, beside moored boats, with nobody else about. Little Venice is the best twenty minutes in the postcode and almost nobody staying in a W2 hotel ever finds it. The three Paddington escorts on this board live close enough to know the way in the dark.
This page takes the canal side and the park side rather than the platforms. Where the water actually is, which hotels look at the park instead of the taxi rank, how long the walks take, and the three companions who live inside W2 and treat it as a neighbourhood rather than a transit point. Figures are on the rates page, and every one of them is confirmed in writing before she leaves.
On the ground
Paddington in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW2 1EE, W2 2TY, W2 6BD, W2 1JU, W2 4RJ.
Nearest stations
Walking timePaddington, 1 minute. Edgware Road, 7 minutes. Lancaster Gate, 8 minutes.
Getting there
W2Travel is included across Zones 1 and 2, and counted from the moment the hour is set rather than from when she leaves.
On the board
Nearest prints to Paddington
Who works here
On the board in Paddington
Laura, Nora and Vanessa give Paddington as the zone they work most, and the eight prints above are the nearest on the board tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
North to the water
The canal runs behind the station and then bends north west towards Little Venice, where the Grand Union and the Regent's Canal meet in a wide pool with boats moored along both sides. From most Praed Street addresses it is about ten minutes on foot, from the Lancaster Gate end a little more. After dark the towpath is lit by the boats rather than by street lamps and is usually empty, which is the whole appeal.
The basin closer to the station, around Sheldon Square, is a different animal: office buildings, flat still water and a handful of restaurants that feel transplanted from somewhere else. It is odd and quiet in the evening and works well if you want to eat within four minutes of your room. Both stretches of water are inside this zone and the walk between them takes about twelve minutes.
Note 03
The park side
South of the Bayswater Road is Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, and the hotels along that edge have a completely different character from the ones behind the station. One hotel faces the park at Lancaster Gate, W2 2TY, and another is further west in Bayswater at W2 4RJ. From either, the gates are across the road and the walk into the park in the early evening is a genuine pleasure.
Back towards the platforms, one hotel is attached to the station at W2 1EE, another is a few minutes away at W2 6BD, and a third is east on the Edgware Road at W2 1JU. They are given here as addresses. No hotel in W2 has any arrangement with this office and none of them is told anything at all about an arrival.
Note 04
Stations, for what it is worth
Paddington itself is a minute from the hotels around it and carries the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines, the Elizabeth line, National Rail and the Heathrow Express. Edgware Road is seven minutes east and Lancaster Gate is eight minutes south on the Central line.
The genuinely useful one for an evening is the Elizabeth line, which puts Bond Street four minutes away and the eastern end of the city within half an hour. If you are staying in W2 and eating in W1, it is quicker than a taxi at almost every hour.
Note 05
Late arrivals, handled without fuss
A good share of bookings in this zone start after a delayed train or a late flight, and the office treats a moved start time as routine rather than as a favour. Tell it the new hour as soon as you know it. The companions who live here are inside W2 already, so a late start costs nothing except the start time.
If you land exhausted, say that too. A quiet dinner four minutes from your hotel beats a heroic evening you will not enjoy, and everyone involved would rather you had the first one. Two hours at £500 is the common shape for a night that begins late; three hours at £700 if you want the canal walk in it.
Note 06
Who books in W2
People off the Heathrow Express who want dinner close to the platform rather than a ride across town. Guests in the park side hotels with one evening and no interest in crossing town. Residents of the streets behind the station, where a private front door is the normal arrangement rather than a hotel room.
What almost all of them want is no drama about timing. The office gives an arrival window, holds it, and moves it without comment when a train does what trains do.
Note 07
The companions who live here
Laura lives in the postcode and is the easiest company on the board after a long day of travelling; green eyes, a coat that works in the rain, and no ceremony about any of it. Vanessa is two streets from the station and would genuinely rather take you to a good corner pub and then the canal than to a room with tablecloths. Nora is the third W2 name, calm, unhurried and very good with late arrivals.
From nearby, Rosa and Liana come across from Marylebone along the Marylebone Road. Who is actually free this week is on the who is free page rather than assumed.
Note 08
Around W2
East along the Marylebone Road and you are in Marylebone inside ten minutes. South across the park, or round it by road, is Kensington. The Elizabeth line reaches Bond Street and the top of Mayfair in four minutes, and the West End proper in under ten. Bayswater, Lancaster Gate, Edgware Road, Maida Vale and the station itself are all covered here.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Paddington
Asked most often
Paddington, asked and answered
Where exactly is Little Venice?
My train is late. What happens to the booking?
Which hotels face the park rather than the station?
Is it faster to reach the West End by train or taxi?
Can a booking here happen the same day?
One zone either way
Next along from Paddington
Last strip
Say a name and an hour
Write in with a length, a time and the zone you are staying in, and a name from the board comes back with a window attached. That is the whole of the arrangement.