Tower Bridge hotel evenings, from St Katharine Docks to Trinity Square

The north bank here is a meeting of old and new that suits a particular kind of evening. The Tower's walls and moat garden on one side; St Katharine Docks, a marina of yachts and old warehouses behind a lock gate, on the other; Trinity Square Gardens above, with a length of the Roman city wall standing by the Tower Hill station exit. At night the walls and the bridge towers are floodlit, and the square empties within an hour of the offices closing.

By day this is the most visited corner of our map, which makes the change after dark all the more marked. By nine the coaches have gone, the Tower's gates are shut, and the river walk from St Katharine's to the bridge is left to residents, hotel guests and the occasional runner.

Each of the four suits a different commute. From the Four Seasons at Ten Trinity Square, Tower Gateway and the DLR are around the corner. citizenM Tower of London has Tower Hill station almost at its door. The Tower Hotel, at the water's edge in St Katharine's, is a few minutes from Tower Pier and the river bus to Canary Wharf. And from Hilton London Tower Bridge, in More London on the south bank, London Bridge station puts the Jubilee line one short ride from the estate.

Guests choose these rooms for themselves; our part is simply knowing how to arrive at each. We hold no partnership with any of the four.

Tower Gateway, the DLR's terminus on the City side, is seven minutes' walk from the bridge. For the Circle and District lines, Tower Hill is eight. London Bridge, across the river, is ten, with Jubilee line trains reaching Canary Wharf in about seven minutes. The river bus leaves Tower Pier for Canary Wharf every twenty minutes or so and takes around ten; after dark it is the finest commute in London.

This end of our map is Zone 1 and close to the West End, so companions reach it quickly: allow up to an hour from confirmation, often less, with travel already part of the fee.

Guests with meetings at the Wharf who would rather wake up beside the Tower than beside a trading floor. Visitors on a first trip for whom the bridge is the whole point. Residents of the marina flats around St Katharine's. And people who want old London outside the window and new London one boat ride away.

Many are on the second or third night of a working week and have had enough of hotel bars full of colleagues. An evening that begins with a walk by the water and ends somewhere quiet is usually the whole brief.

19:15. You leave the office at the Wharf and take the river bus west. 19:30. Off at Tower Pier, a short walk to your room. 20:00. She meets you in the lobby of The Tower Hotel. 20:10. A lap of the marina, past the Ivory House and its clock tower, to a table among the moored yachts. 21:40. Back along the embankment with the bridge floodlit above you. 22:00. Two hours end on time: £500, travel included.

Samanta comes from Mayfair and chooses the domed bar at Trinity Square for a very cold first drink. Bianka, from Knightsbridge, likes the marina at St Katharine's for dinner. Molly, from Soho, comes into her own once the evening turns late.

Wapping begins where St Katharine Docks ends, ten minutes' walk east. Limehouse follows along The Highway, and Canary Wharf is a river bus ride, a Jubilee line trip from London Bridge, or ten minutes through the Limehouse Link by car.