Michelle knows the story of West India Quay

Michelle talks to strangers, and within a few minutes they stop being strangers. She is 173 cm and curvy, with long straight dark brown hair and warm brown eyes that crease at the corners whenever she laughs, and she laughs a lot. Her colours are soft: rose, blush, a dusty pink cashmere wrap for the walk along the water. She pairs them with a sharp heel and excellent posture, so the effect is gentle and elegant at once.

Elegant, nurturing and happily chatty, Michelle is the one to book after a draining week. She notices when you have skipped lunch and orders accordingly. Her English is fluent and full of stories. She sails on summer weekends, reads the plaque on every building she passes and spends rainy afternoons in museums. Cocktails are her hobby rather than her habit; she mixes a very good one at home and judges bars by their bitters.

Around West India Quay her afternoon starts inside London Museum Docklands, in a warehouse built for sugar and rum more than two centuries ago, where she steers you to the galleries on the river trade and the docks at war. By early evening you are back outside on the cobbles, and the quay bars are filling with people from the towers across the water. She orders two drinks with a nod to the bartender and a story to go with each.

Michelle lives in Chelsea, about forty minutes by cab, and most evenings she confirms within minutes. The E14 page covers the hotels by West India Quay; the rates page lists each duration, and booking is where you send a time.