Stratford escorts in E20 and E15, beside the Olympic Park

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park stretches north from the station, with the London Stadium, the Aquatics Centre under its wave of a roof, and the red lattice of the ArcelorMittal Orbit. Along the waterfront, the East Bank has brought a dance theatre, a museum and university buildings to the old Games site. Westfield sits between the park and the station, and on the far side of the tracks the old town keeps its Victorian playhouse on Gerry Raffles Square.

After dark the park is lit along its paths and bridges, and a stroll from the stadium past the Aquatics Centre and back beside the Lea makes a good first half hour.

Match days and concert nights fill the hotels by the park with guests who are not ready for the night to end when the crowd leaves. Summer concerts at the stadium bring a different crowd with the same logic: the evening starts when the encore ends. Theatre-goers at the playhouse or the dance theatre tend to book something calmer. Weekdays bring business guests from the offices of the International Quarter and the studios at Here East, and passengers off the high-speed trains from Kent into Stratford International.

Westfield brings its own trade: shoppers who stay over for a weekend, and diners at the restaurants on its upper level who would rather not end the evening at the table.

The Stratford occupies the lower floors of a striking tower with sky gardens cut into its side, the most design-minded address in E20, and the nearest of the three to Stratford International for a guest off the high-speed train. The Hyatt Regency London Stratford and the Hyatt House London Stratford share a postcode by Westfield and the park: one a full-service hotel, the other apartment-style rooms for guests staying a week or more. We know all three as a visitor knows them, from the lobby; none is connected to us in any way.

Stratford station is two minutes' walk from the hotels and the park, with direct trains to the West End on the Central and Elizabeth lines and to Canary Wharf on the Jubilee line, about ten minutes away. Stratford International, on the DLR and the high-speed line, is six minutes away across Westfield; Stratford High Street, on the DLR, is eight minutes south.

Allow up to an hour from confirmation. Stratford spans Zones 2 and 3, and the fee already covers her travel to the park and the town. On a stadium night the roads around the park slow to a crawl, so she takes the train and walks the last stretch.

21:55. The final whistle at the London Stadium. You message from your seat: Hyatt Regency, ninety minutes, 23:00. 22:03. Confirmed, £400, with the companion's name. 22:40. The crowd funnels towards the station; she is already on the Central line. 22:58. She waits by the lobby lifts, dressed for a hotel bar rather than the terraces. 00:30. Ninety minutes of a drink and a debrief of the match she did not see, and a calm end to a loud day.

Lea comes from Belgravia for the Victorian playhouse and reads the whole programme before curtain up. Sonya, from Knightsbridge, is at her best at the dance theatre on the East Bank and keeps an early-evening window. Danielle travels from South Kensington for a late film on Gerry Raffles Square. The full line-up is on Tonight.

Canary Wharf is a straight Jubilee line ride south. The DLR from Stratford International runs on to the Royal Docks and ExCeL and to London City Airport without a change. Liverpool Street is under ten minutes west on the Elizabeth line.