Isle of Dogs escorts in E14, from the Marsh Wall towers to Island Gardens

Strictly it is a peninsula, but nobody calls it one. The west side faces Rotherhithe across one of the widest reaches of the river; the east side looks over to the Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula; the southern tip ends at Island Gardens, where the Old Royal Naval College fills the view across the water. In the middle, Millwall Dock is still full, and the sailing club keeps its boats on it.

It is also the most local part of E14. A city farm keeps sheep in the shadow of the towers, a riverside park sits at the tip, a handful of old pubs line the eastern bank, and the supermarket stays open late. Evenings here feel less like the estate and more like a neighbourhood.

Who books here? Residents, above all. Bankers who walk to work, consultants on long corporate lets, couples who bought on the island for the view. Hotel guests come too, usually because a room on Marsh Wall is five minutes on foot from their meetings on Canada Square.

Much of the island lives vertically, in towers with a staffed concierge on the ground floor. For those buildings we ask one extra thing when we verify: whether the concierge expects a named guest, or whether you would rather come down to meet her. Either works. She gives the first name you chose, waits in the lobby like any visitor, and goes up only once you have said so.

A few buildings ask visitors to sign in or keep a guest list at the desk; tell us which applies and she arrives prepared with nothing more than that first name. Private houses in Cubitt Town and the terraces along the west bank are simpler still: the address, the door, the time.

On Marsh Wall at South Quay, the Novotel London Canary Wharf faces the Hilton London Canary Wharf across the road. The Novotel's top-floor bar looks straight back at the towers and makes a good first stop; the Hilton is the quieter of the pair. Further along, the Britannia International Hotel is the island's long-standing large hotel, traditional in style and closer to the water than most guests expect.

All three are a few minutes from a DLR stop, and all three are chosen by our guests, never by us; the agency has no arrangement with any of them.

South Quay is three minutes' walk from the Marsh Wall towers, Crossharbour five minutes from the middle of the island, and Island Gardens eight from the southern tip. The DLR links all three to Canary Wharf within a few minutes, and from there the Elizabeth line reaches the West End in about fifteen. There is the river too: the river bus calls at Masthouse Terrace on the west bank, handy when the evening begins with dinner upstream.

Allow up to an hour from confirmation. Travel costs nothing extra anywhere on the island, which is Zone 2 throughout. Late at night she arrives by car down Westferry Road or Manchester Road, and a car at the front door of a tower draws less attention than a walk from the station.

20:10. A flat on the twenty-eighth floor above Millwall Dock. She arrives, the concierge rings up, you come down. 20:25. A walk to the west bank as the lights come up in Rotherhithe opposite. 21:00. Supper at a riverside pub on the eastern shore, the Dome lit across the water. 22:30. Back to the tower for a last glass by the window. 23:10. Three hours end on time: £700, with travel included.

Jasmin comes over from Soho and likes an evening that starts high up, the skyline at eye level. Lucy, from Pimlico, would rather walk the southern tip and cross under the river on foot. Cindy travels from Chelsea for the boats on Millwall Dock, and Rosa, from Marylebone, knows the city farm most visitors walk straight past.

Over the footbridges to the north, the Canary Wharf estate is five minutes' walk. Greenwich lies under the river, by foot tunnel or DLR from Island Gardens. Limehouse is just past the estate to the north-west, and the E14 postcode page ties the three together.