Knightsbridge, SW1X and SW7, and the two halves of the postcode

The park half, SW1X

This is the half with the view. Rooms on the upper floors look across the park to the Bayswater side, and the light in them at seven in the evening is the reason people pay for the floor rather than the room. Evenings here tend to start upstairs with a drink and stay in the hotel, or move no further than a table with a window. Guests are often in town for three or four nights and book the same companion twice, which we encourage and which is never priced differently.

The museum half, SW7

West of the Brompton Oratory the district becomes residential and much quieter. Nobody books a suite here for a view; they book because the street is calm and the door is their own. Evenings begin later, run longer and more often include a walk. If you are staying on this side, tell Tamsin, because it changes which companion she suggests rather than what you pay.

Six hotels, across both halves

SW1X 7LA, on the park itself. SW1X 7RL, at the Wilton Place corner. SW1X 9PY, on Cadogan Place. SW1X 7LY, at Hyde Park Corner. Over the seam, SW7 1DW, on Knightsbridge Green, and SW3 1PT, on a residential street behind Harrods.

We have no connection to any of them and have never sought one. They appear here as landmarks, nothing more.

Stations, and the one minute that matters

Knightsbridge station sits 1 minute from the centre of the district, Piccadilly line, which is a genuine advantage if you are coming from Heathrow without wanting a car. Hyde Park Corner is 5 minutes, same line. Sloane Square is 9 minutes south, Circle and District. Nobody attending here needs a station, but guests arriving in town often do, and the Piccadilly line takes about fifty minutes from the airport to that one minute walk.

The shops, and the hour after they shut

The Brompton Road empties fast. Between six and seven the pavement outside Harrods goes from impassable to almost empty, and the district changes register within the hour. That hour is the best one to book: the roads are moving, the bars are not yet full, and a companion who leaves Belgravia at half past six is with you before seven. Two hours is £500 and covers a drink downstairs and dinner nearby without hurrying either.

Who books here

Long stays, mostly. People taking a suite for a week rather than a night, families using a serviced flat for a season, guests in town for a hospital appointment on Harley Street who would rather not spend the evening alone thinking about it. Almost all of it is booked in advance and much of it is repeat. What is asked for is steadiness: the same face, the same hour, a conversation that picks up where it left off.

Three who live in the district

Bianka is twenty-three, curvy, remembers small things guests mention in passing and cooks Italian properly. Margo is thirty-one, precise, dressed in black and wholly uninterested in pretending to be younger. Sonya is thirty-two, athletic, reads biographies and will tell you plainly when a table is not available rather than let you hope.

Lucy and Molly come from the Sloane Street side, and Lea, Patricia and Violetta from Belgravia, which at this end is a walk rather than a journey.

Around Knightsbridge

Belgravia begins at Wilton Place and is eight minutes on foot. Sloane Street runs south from the junction to Sloane Square, ten minutes end to end. The King's Road and the rest of Chelsea follow on from there. West along Kensington Road, twenty minutes by car, lies W8 and the palace side. South Kensington and Hyde Park are inside the same short walk and are attended on the same terms.