Kensington escorts in W8, for the palace side of Kensington Gardens

Kensington Palace sits on the western side of Kensington Gardens, red brick and surprisingly modest for a royal house, with a marble statue of Queen Victoria, carved by her daughter Princess Louise, facing the Round Pond. North of the palace runs Kensington Palace Gardens, a private avenue of embassies and ambassadors' residences with guarded gates at both ends. Walk it once in daylight and the size of the houses explains a good deal about the neighbourhood.

South of the high street the tone turns to garden squares. Kensington Square was laid out in the 1680s and still has houses from its first decades. Edwardes Square, further west, keeps a large private garden behind tall railings. Kensington Court is a tight cluster of red brick mansion blocks just off the high street, and De Vere Gardens and Victoria Road carry white stucco east towards South Kensington.

It is a district that goes to bed early and rises late, which suits guests who want an evening to feel private without feeling remote.

The hotel block in W8 is short and specific. Neither hotel has any arrangement with the agency. They are simply the two addresses companions walk into most often, arriving as any guest's visitor would.

The Royal Garden Hotel rises beside the gardens at the eastern end of Kensington High Street, a modern building whose upper floors look over the treetops towards the towers of the West End. On its tenth floor, Min Jiang serves Chinese cooking with one of the finest windows in west London. The Milestone Hotel occupies a Victorian house on the corner of Kensington Court, opposite the palace gardens, small and carefully run, with a Stables Bar that is panelled, quiet and very easy to talk in.

Private addresses make up as much of the Kensington diary as hotels do. Mansion flats with a porter's desk, houses opening straight onto a square and serviced apartments on the side streets are all visited on identical terms.

For the Circle and District lines, High Street Kensington station is a minute's walk from the district's centre, its arcade opening directly onto the shops. Notting Hill Gate, which adds the Central line, is about 8 minutes north on foot by way of Kensington Church Street. Gloucester Road, with the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, is about 9 minutes south.

A Kensington booking starts like any other: a single WhatsApp or Telegram message with the companion's name, the hour, the length and the place. For a hotel, the desk matches the name you give to the room number. For a residence it matches that name to the building and flat, and asks whether a porter should expect a visitor. Nothing beyond that is requested.

In W8 the arithmetic is unchanged. A quarter of the fee is transferred ahead to confirm a standard hotel or residence visit, and the other three quarters are settled on the night, in notes or by bank transfer as you prefer. An overnight in a mansion flat, an event or a trip away asks for half in advance, and the slice of it covering travel is not returned if plans change.

W8 is Zone 1, so her journey never appears as an extra, and a confirmed companion usually rings the bell within the hour.

Kensington draws guests who like to be near a park and away from a scene. Business travellers at the Royal Garden who have had enough of hotel bars by Wednesday. Visitors on a month's let who would like someone to show them the better tables nearby. Residents who entertain at home and prefer a companion comfortable in a drawing room, with a porter downstairs and a neighbour across the landing.

Seven o'clock: a walk along the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens while the light holds, or a drink in the bar of your hotel if it does not. Eight: dinner at Min Jiang, where the duck is roasted over wood and carved at the table, and the windows turn the park into a dark lake with the city lit beyond it.

Half past ten: a few steps along the high street to Kensington Court for a nightcap in the quiet of The Milestone, or straight home to the flat. The whole shape takes about three and a half hours, which is why most guests choose the dinner date, four hours at £900. Dinner and a drink without the walk fits three hours at £700.

None of the companions gives W8 as her home district, but two groups live close by. A short ride south, in South Kensington, are Danielle, Milena and Thea. Laura, Nora and Vanessa live in Paddington, on the far side of Kensington Gardens.

Any of the six reaches a Kensington address comfortably inside the hour, and every other name in the gallery comes to W8 at identical fees.

The high street has its own page at High Street Kensington. West of Kensington Church Street, Holland Park begins; north, over the hill, is Notting Hill. South and east, South Kensington and Gloucester Road share the Piccadilly line.