SW1's most practical stays, from Victoria station to Whitehall

Two neighbours, one habit

Victoria and Westminster sit side by side in SW1, and at first glance they could hardly be more different. Victoria is a transport hub, with the mainline station, the Gatwick Express, the coach station and crowds at every hour. Westminster is the seat of government, with ministries, Parliament and the long quiet streets around St James's Park. What they share is a habit: hotel staff here have long practice at looking after guests who would rather not be noticed.

Politicians on late sitting nights, civil servants on long days, visiting delegations, business travellers catching the first train to the coast. Nobody behind a desk in SW1 is surprised by a visitor at ten o'clock at night.

Beside the palace walls

The Goring, on Beeston Place, has been run by the same family since it opened in 1910 and stands a few minutes from Buckingham Palace. It is traditional in the best sense, with a bar and lounge looking out over a private garden and staff who have been there for years. On Buckingham Palace Road, The Rubens at the Palace faces the Royal Mews, and Hotel 41, its small and very private sister, keeps an address on the same road.

These are hotels where good manners carry the discretion. Walk in through the front door, dress for a proper lounge, and the evening is simply taken for granted.

Station side

Around Victoria station itself are the practical hotels, large, modern and staffed through the night. The Park Plaza Victoria and the DoubleTree by Hilton Victoria are each a few minutes' walk from the platforms, full of people with luggage at every hour, and entirely unbothered by one more arrival. The streets around the station have filled with new restaurants in recent years, so dinner is a short walk from the lift. Victoria Coach Station, a short walk south, adds late arrivals of its own, one more reason the desks round here never look surprised.

For a guest flying out of Gatwick, Victoria is the obvious last night in town. The Gatwick Express leaves from here, and a hotel beside the station means the morning journey starts on the platform, not in a taxi queue.

Whitehall and St James's Park

Westminster's hotels are grander and quieter. St Ermin's, on Caxton Street, is a Victorian mansion around a courtyard with a well known past as a meeting place for wartime intelligence officers, and it takes discretion seriously by tradition. The Conrad London St. James stands opposite St James's Park station. Down towards the river, the Corinthia on Whitehall Place is a grand Victorian building with a large spa, and The Royal Horseguards beside it looks out over the Thames.

Across Westminster Bridge on the South Bank, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge faces Parliament across the water, big, busy and used to every kind of guest.

Where an SW1 evening goes

Westminster after dark is one of the loveliest walks in London and one of the least crowded. St James's Park, with its lake and the view towards the palace, is a few minutes from most of these hotels. Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament are floodlit at night, and the river path along the Embankment runs from Westminster Bridge towards Charing Cross with the London Eye lit on the far bank.

Victoria has theatres of its own, the Apollo Victoria and the Victoria Palace, both a short walk from the station hotels, which makes a show, a late supper and the lift up an easy evening for a guest who would rather not cross town. Allow three hours at £700 for that shape of evening, or four for a proper dinner as well.

A discreet visit in SW1

The rules here are the same as anywhere, applied with a little more care. Use the main entrance. If the lifts answer only to a room key, begin in the bar. If a hotel wants an overnight guest on the registration, add her first name at reception and think no more of it. Keep the corridor quiet after midnight, when the rooms on either side are likely to hold people with early starts.

No SW1 address lies outside Zone 1, so there is nothing to pay for her journey. At Gatwick itself, bookings begin at three hours, because the drive down is part of the time.

Choosing between the two sides of SW1

For a working trip with meetings in Whitehall or an early train from Victoria, the practical hotels win: close to the platforms, quick lifts, a lobby too busy to notice anything. For an evening that should feel like an occasion, the Goring side or the Whitehall side repays the extra walk, with a lounge for a first drink and staff who remember a face kindly. Plenty of guests split the week: a station hotel on Monday for the early meeting, a grander room on Thursday once the work is done.

The rota next door

No companion lives in Victoria itself, but two live next door in Pimlico. Lucy, with her cloud of dark brown curls, runs along the river most mornings and brings a gentle, artistic manner to an evening. Roxi, playful and bright, starts her days in a boxing gym near Victoria. A few minutes further, the Belgravia companions, Lea, Patricia and Violetta, are close too. Roxi and Violetta both appear on the raven haired shortlist.

For a night that runs until breakfast, the overnight format is ten hours for £1,800. Everything else is on the rates page, and the message to send is waiting on the booking page.