London City Airport, E16: from wheels down to a quay lobby

London City Airport has its own DLR station two minutes from the terminal entrance. Custom House, four minutes west by train, puts you on the Elizabeth line and is the fastest way to the rest of London. Royal Victoria, five minutes on, is the stop for the western end of the dock and the footbridge.

By train, the Wharf is eleven minutes from the terminal and Bank is twenty two. By road, allow fifteen minutes to the Wharf on a clear evening and twenty five when the river crossings are busy. A companion setting out from the West End takes about forty minutes door to door, and Maude quotes that as a window rather than a vow.

One hotel stands on Royal Victoria Dock, a ten minute ride from the terminal and three minutes from Custom House. A second is beside it on the same stretch of water. A third sits at Western Gateway, nearer the footbridge, and a fourth completes the row along the dock.

Four names, all within a few minutes of each other and of the airport, and not one of them connected to us in any way. They are listed because they are where people reading this page sleep. The serviced flats behind the dock are booked on identical terms.

Give the flight number and the scheduled landing time rather than a guess at when you will be in the room. The desk adds forty minutes for a City arrival, which is generous on a good night and about right on a bad one, and sets her arrival from that. If the aircraft is late, one line moves the time and nothing is lost.

Most bookings here run two hours at £500, or four hours at £900 as a dinner date, the second usually when somebody has flown in for a dinner the next day and would rather not spend the evening with a laptop. Overnight at £1,800 works well from this airport, because the first departures are late enough to allow a slow morning.

Nora and Vanessa are anchored here and both watch the arrivals board when a booking is tied to a flight. Roxi and Laura cover the Royal Docks a few minutes west and take the overflow during fair weeks. Lea comes down from Stratford when the evening runs late.

Six to eight names appear on this page, with the rest of the twenty eight on the desk. What is shown as availability is the real thing, checked before a name is ever put in front of you.

This is Zone 3, the only part of our map outside the included band. Her taxi both ways is quoted as a single figure inside the confirmation, before you agree to anything, and it is the one addition this site ever makes to a published rate. Nothing else is added, here or anywhere.

Royal Docks and ExCeL is two stops west, four minutes. Canary Wharf is eleven minutes by DLR with one change at Poplar. Stratford is fifteen minutes north through Canning Town, and Bank and Monument twenty two minutes straight down the line. Lengths and figures: rates. The sequence: booking.