Patricia and a small paint box at Wapping Wall, E1W

Patricia notices light the way a painter does, which is to say constantly and without fuss. Slim at 172 cm, she wears her auburn brown hair long, and her brown eyes soften when something interests her. She dresses romantically, with a bohemian streak: a floral tea dress, a long cardigan, a linen shirt over wide trousers, a cloth bag holding a paperback and a travel paint box. There is nothing loud about her, and she is very hard to forget.

Gentle, romantic and deeply attentive, Patricia makes a guest feel properly heard. Her English is soft and fluent. She paints in watercolour, which she says teaches patience because the paper decides half of everything. Film noir is her guilty pleasure; she can recite whole scenes of shadowy dialogue. Second-hand bookshops are her weakness, and she rarely leaves one empty-handed, usually with a detective novel older than both of you put together.

In Wapping she takes you to the Prospect of Whitby on Wapping Wall, a riverside tavern of great age where painters are said to have sketched the Thames for generations. She finds a place by the window or out on the terrace, orders something warm, and on a clear evening takes out her tiny paint box to catch the river in ten minutes flat. Afterwards she walks you along Wapping High Street, between the tall warehouse walls, back towards your hotel.

Patricia lives in Belgravia, well to the west, and prefers quiet evenings requested a day or two ahead. Wapping falls inside Zone 2, so there is no travel charge. Browse the Wapping page for hotels, see rates for the lengths, and ask booking for your date.