Chelsea companions in SW3, for King's Road tables and houses by the river

The King's Road leaves Sloane Square heading west, past Duke of York Square, and keeps going for more than a mile before it bends at World's End. Its early length is polished and busy; further west it grows quieter and more individual, with independent shops, the old Bluebird garage and streets of small houses painted in careful shades of grey, cream and blue. Parallel to it, the Fulham Road holds Brompton Cross, where the tiled Michelin House marks the start of the smart end.

South of the King's Road the streets drop towards the Thames. Cheyne Walk runs along the Embankment with houses once lived in by painters and writers, Carlyle's House keeps its Victorian rooms intact on Cheyne Row, and the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded by the apothecaries in 1673, still grows its medicinal beds. Further east, the lawns of the Royal Hospital belong to the Chelsea Pensioners in their scarlet coats for most of the year and to the Flower Show for one week of it.

Chelsea's hotels are small, which suits the district. They are named as addresses companions arrive at, never as partners, and none has any agreement with the agency.

The Draycott Hotel is made from a group of Edwardian houses on Cadogan Gardens and run with the manner of a private home. San Domenico House on Draycott Place is smaller still, its rooms full of antiques and heavy curtains. Sydney House Chelsea, on Sydney Street between the King's Road and the Fulham Road, is a neat modern townhouse hotel on the South Kensington side.

Most Chelsea bookings, though, go to private addresses: townhouses on the squares, mews houses behind them, mansion flats facing the Embankment. A house is visited on precisely the terms of a hotel room.

The nearest station is Sloane Square, on the Circle and District lines, roughly 5 minutes on foot from where the King's Road begins. South Kensington, which adds the Piccadilly line, is about 10 minutes' walk north of the Fulham Road side of the district. West of the old town hall the Underground thins out, and the buses along the King's Road do most of the carrying.

Write to the desk, WhatsApp or Telegram, giving the companion's name, the day and time, the length and the address. The reply comes within 10 to 15 minutes. For a house or flat, the desk checks the name on the booking against the street, number and flat, and she leaves home only once that is settled. For a hotel the same name is checked against the room.

A Chelsea evening is held with a quarter of its fee, 25 percent by bank transfer, when it is a standard hotel or residence visit; the remaining three quarters change hands on arrival, in cash or by transfer. Overnights, events and travel bookings need half in advance, and the travel share within that half is non-refundable.

With three companions living locally, a confirmed Chelsea booking is usually at the door within the hour, often sooner. And since plans change, a booking called off three or more hours ahead costs nothing.

Residents first. Chelsea is a place people live in rather than pass through, and many bookings come from townhouses and mansion flats where the guest would simply prefer a relaxed evening at home, dinner delivered or a table around the corner. Then the seasonal visitors, renting a house for the Flower Show, the summer or a long stretch of work in London. Finally, hotel guests near the square who picked Chelsea precisely because it does not feel like a hotel district.

Seven: the bar at Bluebird, a 1920s motor garage turned into one of Chelsea's liveliest dining rooms, its courtyard full on warm nights. Eight: dinner upstairs, or a quieter table at Phene on Phene Street, a corner pub and dining room with a garden, a few minutes south.

Half past nine: down Oakley Street to the river, where Albert Bridge is strung with lights, then a few minutes along Cheyne Walk before turning back to the house. The whole shape runs close to four hours, the dinner date at £900. Dinner without the river fits three hours at £700, and a guest who would rather stay in can book two hours for £500.

Cindy, in her mid twenties, notices light and space the way a photographer does, and is cheerful, unhurried company at a table or in a house. Michelle, in her late twenties, is the natural host of the three, talkative and attentive, quick to sense a tired traveller before anything has been said. Stacy, in her early twenties, is bold, very tall and very funny, and at her best on an evening with a little spontaneity in it.

Living locally, they tend to be quickest to the door. The rest of the gallery covers Chelsea as well, travel included.

East, the King's Road ends at Sloane Square and its theatre. North, beyond the Fulham Road, are South Kensington and the museums. North west along Old Brompton Road lies Earls Court. For the postcode as a whole, see the SW3 guide.