Euston escorts in NW1, for the night between two trains

Drummond Street runs behind the western side and is the reason people who know the area walk past the concourse food entirely: a short row of vegetarian dining rooms that have been there for decades, cheap, excellent and open while the trains are still running. Euston Square Gardens sit in front of the station with the war memorial and the two lodges, and Somers Town lies east of Eversholt Street, low blocks and small squares with almost no through traffic.

The Wellcome Collection stands a minute west along Euston Road, a free gallery with a reading room upstairs that stays open into the evening on Thursdays and is the most civilised hour anybody spends in this postcode. Regent's Park is fifteen minutes further west, and on a clear night the walk up Albany Street is the best thing on offer here.

This postcode runs on business travel. Guests down for one night with meetings either side of it, staying on Euston Road because it is four minutes from the platform, who want an evening that does not require them to cross London and back. Consultants and contractors on a Monday to Thursday pattern who have done the hotel bar routine often enough. A smaller group are arrivals visiting the hospital or the university buildings nearby.

Two hours at £500 is the standard request here, with ninety minutes at £400 next. Four hours and a dinner at £900 is less common than elsewhere on the circuit, and ten hours at £1,800 is chosen almost entirely by people catching something before eight in the morning.

The Pullman stands on Euston Road between the two stations, a glass tower with a bar off the lobby that keeps serving late and a lift bank reached without a word to anybody. The Wesley on Euston Street is the quieter option a street behind, plain and well kept. The Crowne Plaza is ten minutes east on Kings Cross Road for anything on that side. Serviced flats on Eversholt Street and the apartments in Somers Town take the same bookings on the same terms.

Listed as places she is called to, never as associates of the house. She arrives as your invited guest, crosses the lobby and goes up, which in a station hotel at nine in the evening is the least remarkable thing happening in the building.

Euston, one minute from the hotels along the road, Northern and Victoria lines below and the mainline platforms above. Euston Square, four minutes west along Euston Road, adding Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan, which is the faster route to the west of the city.

King's Cross St Pancras is ten minutes east on foot if the connection you want is there instead. Everything around the station sits in Zone 1, so the journey is inside the fee and never billed separately.

The message the desk wants is short and specific: the hour, the length, the address, and whichever name you prefer, or a short description of the company you want. If a train or a meeting fixes the end of the evening, say so at the start, because it changes which length makes sense. A response lands 10 to 15 minutes later, whatever the hour.

One written check covers the name on the reservation, the hotel and the room, and is never repeated. After it, a weeknight booking is simply written in. A night that runs to morning, an event or a trip out of town wants the departure time mentioned up front, so the length can be chosen around it.

Arrivals in NW1 usually happen inside the hour of confirmation.

19:45, a drink in the lobby bar on Euston Road, busy enough that nobody registers an arrival and quiet enough to hear each other. 20:30, five minutes on foot to Drummond Street for a table where the food arrives quickly and the bill is a pleasant surprise. 22:00, a slow loop of Euston Square Gardens past the lodges and the memorial, which takes ten minutes and resets the day. 22:30, back to the hotel with an alarm already set.

Two hours at £500 covers that exactly, which is why it is the most requested length in this postcode. Ninety minutes at £400 trims the walk. Three hours at £700 adds the part of the evening people usually wish they had booked, and £1,800 takes it through to the morning when the first train is the enemy.

Nobody on the list lives beside the station, and the shortest journeys come from the west. Liana travels in from Marylebone in about ten minutes, calm, unhurried and very good company after a long working day. Rosa makes the same short run and is the warmer of the two on a night that needs lightening. Nancy comes up from Covent Garden and is the easiest person on the call sheet to spend two hours with.

Every other woman in the company reaches Euston on the same figures, with the travelling already counted inside the fee.

Ten minutes east along Euston Road, St Pancras takes the continental services and Kings Cross the trains from the north. South through the squares, Bloomsbury begins within five minutes, with Holborn beyond it. The theatres of Covent Garden are about twenty minutes door to door on the Northern line.