Desk openReel 06 · OfferingsFrom £250
A travel companion from London Bridge and Liverpool Street
Two of London's busiest stations sit inside this site's map, and both are airport lines. Thameslink trains run from London Bridge Station to Gatwick in around half an hour. The Stansted Express leaves from Liverpool Street, which is also on the Elizabeth line out to Heathrow. That makes travel a natural part of what this desk arranges, whether you land tonight, fly out at dawn or are leaving London for a few days.
This page covers three kinds of booking. The first meets you after you arrive and spends the evening with you in town. The second keeps you company at an airport hotel. The third travels with you, by train or by plane, somewhere else entirely. Each is priced in its own way, and each is set out below.
Chosen for Travel companion
The companions the desk puts forward first when this evening is requested. Anyone on the reel may be asked.
Landing tonight
The simplest version: you write from the plane or the train, the desk confirms, and she meets you at your hotel once you have checked in. She does not wait on a platform or at an arrivals gate; a hotel lobby or bar is calmer for both of you and keeps the start time honest if a flight comes in late. This is an ordinary booking on the ladder, from £250 for an hour, and after a long journey most guests choose two hours or a dinner by the river.
Hotels within sight of the platforms
Guests who come in by train often sleep close to where they arrived. London Bridge Hotel stands across the street from the station, Shangri-La The Shard rises directly above it, and Hilton London Tower Bridge is a short walk east along Tooley Street. At the other end of the line, Andaz London Liverpool Street adjoins the station itself and Pan Pacific London is a few minutes up Bishopsgate. The desk has no arrangement with any of them, but from any of these rooms the journey back to the platform the next morning takes minutes, which makes an evening after arrival and an early departure sit comfortably together.
Airport hotels
Some guests stay at the airport itself, usually before an early flight. Bookings at Heathrow and Gatwick hotels run to three hours at the least, £700, her journey counted within them, with the return taxi shown as part of one figure before you confirm. Stansted, Luton and London City are quoted booking by booking, fare included, in the first reply. If your flight leaves at six in the morning, an overnight at the airport, or at a hotel near the station you leave from, is often the calmer choice. Every figure sits on the rates page.
Leaving London together
A trip away, whether a weekend in the country, a few days in another city or a work trip with free evenings, is arranged one booking at a time. Tell the desk where, when and for how long, and it returns a written quote built around your dates. Travel needs several days of notice, and everything the journey involves is written into that quote from the start rather than appearing at the end. Weekends are priced the same way, on request, and every term is set down before anything is agreed.
Shaping the days on a longer trip
Over several days she is your companion for the evenings and for whatever time you plan together, not a second shadow at every meeting. Most guests prefer it that way: work by day, dinner and company after. The quote spells out how each day is shaped, so both of you know what to expect before the train pulls out.
Companions who travel well
Laura rides, skis and has a soft spot for slow trains through Italy; green eyed and sun streaked, she is usually free the same day from noon. Nancy, golden blonde and in her early thirties, loves a long drive and is best booked for a weekend by the Wednesday before. Cindy sails and carries a film camera everywhere, which makes a coastal trip an easy fit. Vanessa, 173 cm with a sandy balayage, cycles, collects vintage perfume and new words, and is most often free midweek. Laura is the one toned and athletic name among the four.
Travel companion, answered
Message the desk the moment the delay is announced. The start moves to match your new arrival wherever her evening allows, and with three hours of warning or more, moving it costs nothing.
Sometimes, with notice. Give the destination and the travel dates when you first write; the desk checks who is free and replies with a written quote. Nothing is booked until you have read and accepted it.
It is quoted individually, with the fare both ways folded into one figure. Because the drive is long, the desk will normally suggest three hours or more so the journey does not swallow the evening.
For you, yes: Liverpool Street to the Heathrow terminals is a straight run of under an hour. For the booking nothing changes. An airport hotel is still three hours at least, and a hotel in the City is still an ordinary visit from £250.
If the booking runs until then, yes, as far as the hotel door or the station entrance. The time she spends with you is counted the same way wherever it is spent.
Read first
- 5 min readFacing the bascules: the rooms that see Tower Bridge, and when the view earns its pricePlenty of rooms are sold as river view. Far fewer look straight at Tower Bridge. Which windows really face the bascules, and the bookings where paying extra for the view actually makes sense.
- 5 min readTables with the water in sight: a riverside dinner from Blackfriars to Butler's WharfEvery restaurant near the Thames calls itself riverside. Far fewer let you see the river from your chair. A walk east along the south bank, sorting the real views from the decks with a glimpse.
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Describe the plan in a line or two. The desk confirms a companion, a fee and the time she arrives.