Escorts in Waterloo, SE1: who is close, and how soon
Under the four-faced clock that hangs above the concourse, the boards are flicking through the evening trains to Surrey, Hampshire and the south-west, and the crowd is moving the other way: down the escalators to the Underground, or out through the Victory Arch, the station's memorial to the railway staff who died in the First World War, and on towards the river. Waterloo has more platforms than any other station in Britain, and it sits on top of four Underground lines. For anyone booking Waterloo escorts, those connections decide the shape of the evening before anything else does.
On the ground
Waterloo in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameSE1 9PD, SE1 7PB, SE1 7UT, SE1 8PB.
Nearest stations
Walking timeWaterloo, 1 minute. Southwark, 4 minutes. Lambeth North, 5 minutes.
Getting there
SE1Travel 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 Waterloo
Who works here
On the board in Waterloo
The eight prints above are a first shortlist for Waterloo tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Four lines under one concourse
Beneath the main line station the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo and City lines all meet. The Bakerloo runs north under the river to Embankment, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, straight into the West End. The Jubilee goes west to Westminster, Green Park and Bond Street, and east through Southwark and London Bridge to Canary Wharf. The Northern line's Charing Cross branch crosses to Embankment and carries on to Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road. The Waterloo and City, the shortest line on the Underground, shuttles to Bank and nowhere else.
Waterloo East, across a raised walkway, is a station of its own on the line from Charing Cross through London Bridge towards Kent, and Southwark on the Jubilee is four minutes on foot, with Lambeth North on the Bakerloo at five. Until 2007 the Eurostar left from the long glass-roofed international platforms on the western side; the trains to Paris now go from St Pancras. In practice, a West End dinner, a Canary Wharf meeting and a South Bank room are all on one line or another from the same ticket hall. The women on the board all live over on the north bank, which leaves roughly an hour between the office's go-ahead and her arrival at the door, more while the rush lasts, and the chat pins down the minute; lengths and prices are listed on the rates.
Note 03
Three bridges to the north bank
Walking is often the better plan. Waterloo Bridge lands on the Strand beside Somerset House, the direct way to Strand and Aldwych and on into the theatres of Covent Garden. The Golden Jubilee footbridges, one either side of the rail bridge into Charing Cross, bring you down onto the Embankment by Charing Cross. Westminster Bridge, past County Hall, reaches Parliament Square and Westminster.
The upshot for escorts in Waterloo, and for whoever books them, is simple. A dinner across the river needs no taxi at either end, and the walk back over the water, with the Embankment lit on one side and the South Bank on the other, is as good a way to finish as any in London. On a wet night the Underground does the same job in a single stop.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Waterloo
Asked most often
Waterloo, asked and answered
Is Waterloo East part of the same station?
Which bridge is best for walking to dinner in Covent Garden?
Is the Waterloo and City line any use for a dinner in the City?
One zone either way
Next along from Waterloo
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.