Escorts in W2, Paddington and Bayswater: who is close, and how soon
What does W2 offer when the rain has set in for the night? More than most postcodes, because so much of it was built around a great station roof, deep porches and a long run of park railings best admired from indoors. Anywhere in the postcode she is usually with you about an hour after the office confirms, longer when rain and rush hour clog the roads, and the chat carries her exact time; every length is on the rates.
On the ground
W2 in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameW2 2TY, W2 1EE, W2 1JU, W2 4RJ, W2 4DU.
Nearest stations
Walking timePaddington, 2 minutes. Lancaster Gate, 5 minutes. Bayswater, 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.
Who works here
On the board in W2
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for W2 tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Under the station roof
The whole station side of W2 hangs off one great roof. The train shed covers every main line platform, and at its town end the Lawn, the concourse between the platforms and Praed Street, sits under glass of its own, so a guest off a train from the west can cross the station end to end without once opening an umbrella.
Two bronzes on platform 1 are worth a look while the rain drums on the glass: Paddington Bear on his suitcase, in the duffel coat and hat of a bear who knows exactly what an English evening can do, and further along the same platform the railway's war memorial, a soldier in a greatcoat reading a letter from home.
Note 03
Porches and wet stucco
West of the station the streets turn to white stucco terraces, and in rain Bayswater goes from cream to a gleaming grey, most doors sheltered by a pillared porch deep enough to stand in while a taxi pulls up. It is a district made for dashes rather than strolls, from porch to cab to lobby.
The Bayswater Road is the exposed edge. With the open park along its southern side a wet wind has room to build, and on a rough night the stretch between Lancaster Gate and Queensway is better done in a cab than on foot. Anyone booking escorts in W2 for a wet evening can leave that walk out of the plan.
Note 04
Queensway when it pours
Queensway is the covered option without a roof. Restaurant windows and shopfronts run side by side up the street from the Bayswater Road, so an evening there is a matter of choosing a lit doorway and ducking in, with the next one close by if the first is full. On a cold night that density is the whole appeal: W2 escorts and their guests can eat, talk and be back indoors without the weather getting a word in.
Note 05
The park, seen from indoors
Across the Bayswater Road, Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park sit dark behind their railings, and the Italian Gardens at Lancaster Gate, at the head of the Long Water, look best from a window when the wind is throwing rain across the fountains. W2 2TY faces the park across that road.
For anyone who means to stay under a roof from the train to the room, the station side of W2 around Paddington is the better half of the postcode. The park half is for the evening after the weather clears.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for W2
Asked most often
W2, asked and answered
Which corner of W2 is kindest on a wet night?
Is the park worth anything in the rain?
Does cold weather change the shape of an evening here?
One zone either way
Next along from W2
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.