Greenwich escorts in SE10, between the naval college and the O2

Novotel London Greenwich sits in the old town, a short walk from Greenwich station, and its guests are usually here for the Cutty Sark, the museums and the market on a Saturday. InterContinental London The O2 stands on the Peninsula near the arena, and its guests are usually here for a concert or a conference, wanting an evening that starts or ends by the water. Its upper floors look straight across the river at the Wharf, which suits guests who work there and want the view without the commute.

Both are chosen by our guests, not by us, and there is no arrangement with either. Private houses in the town and flats on the Peninsula are booked the same way.

Greenwich runs on history, quite literally: the prime meridian passes through the Observatory on the hill. Wren's Old Royal Naval College fills the riverfront with its twin domes and colonnades; the Cutty Sark, the last surviving tea clipper, rests in dry dock by the pier; the Queen's House and the National Maritime Museum sit at the foot of the park. After six, when the day visitors have gone, the town settles into an evening pace of its own, the market hall shut but the pubs around it busy, long tables in the old taverns and the water catching the lights of the towers opposite.

The Peninsula is a different place again: the O2 under its white canopy and yellow masts, new streets of flats and studios, and a riverside path that heads on towards the Thames Barrier. It feels newer and more open than the town, and after a concert it fills and empties within the hour.

Residents of the town and of the new riverside blocks on the Peninsula. Visitors staying a weekend for the museums. Concert-goers at the O2 with a room next door, who would like the night to go on after the arena empties. And, more often than you might expect, people who work at Canary Wharf and prefer to spend their evenings on the quieter side of the Thames.

22:40. The encore ends at the O2. You write from the walkway: InterContinental, midnight, two hours. 22:48. Philippa confirms the companion, £500 and an arrival of 23:50. 23:50. She is in the lobby as the last of the crowd drifts towards North Greenwich station. 00:05. A nightcap at the bar with the river outside. 01:50. The evening ends as agreed, and she leaves as quietly as she came.

Cutty Sark on the DLR is two minutes from the town centre and the pier; Greenwich station, on the DLR and National Rail, is four; Maze Hill, on National Rail, is ten minutes from the eastern side of the park. For the Peninsula, North Greenwich on the Jubilee line is one stop from Canary Wharf. On foot, the Greenwich Foot Tunnel runs beneath the river from Island Gardens.

Most companions come by car or on the Jubilee line, so allow up to an hour from confirmation. Greenwich straddles Zones 2 and 3, and both the town and the Peninsula come with travel included.

Violetta comes from Belgravia for dinner at the grand old tavern beside the naval college. Stacy, from Chelsea, prefers the comedy club on Creek Road and her camera afterwards. Laura sets out from Paddington and likes to arrive by cable car from the Royal Docks side.

The Isle of Dogs is directly opposite, through the foot tunnel. Canary Wharf is one Jubilee line stop from North Greenwich, and the Royal Docks and ExCeL are a cable car ride over the river.