Hackney escorts, E8 and E9, from the Narrow Way outwards

Mare Street, the Narrow Way and E9

The Narrow Way is the pedestrian stretch of Mare Street between the church tower and the station, and at six it is as busy as anywhere in London. The Hackney Empire stands at the south end of it, red brick and gilt, still a working theatre. Next door the old town hall faces a square that fills up with people the moment the weather allows.

South of that, Mare Street runs down past the Regent's Canal towards Cambridge Heath. East, Well Street leads into E9 and the top corner of Victoria Park, which is where Hackney goes on a Sunday. North, Clapton and E5 begin at Lower Clapton Road, and Chatsworth Road keeps a market on a Sunday morning that is worth the walk.

Mostly flats, a few good rooms

This is a residential booking district first and foremost. Most addresses we are given are flats, conversions in the Victorian terraces off Graham Road or new blocks behind the station, and they are visited exactly as a hotel is.

For rooms, the hotel in the old Bethnal Green town hall is fifteen minutes south at E2 9NF, and it is the handsomest building any of our guests sleep in. The Hackney Road one is about the same distance. The busy lobby at EC2A 3HU and the low lit rooms at EC2A 4BH are the nearest of the Shoreditch cluster. We are not connected to any of them and say so plainly.

Central, Downs and the walk between them

Hackney Central is two minutes from the Narrow Way on the Overground. Hackney Downs, six minutes away, is a separate station on the Overground and the main line out to Enfield and Chingford, and the two are joined by a signposted walkway. London Fields is nine minutes south.

Nothing here is on the Underground, which is the one honest complaint the district has. She travels by road from central London, thirty to forty five minutes in the early evening and appreciably less later. E8 and E9 are Zone 2, so the fare stays inside the figure you were quoted.

Buses do more work here than anywhere else on this site, and the 38, the 55 and the 242 all run down Mare Street towards the City. None of that is her problem, but it is worth knowing if you are meeting her somewhere rather than waiting at home.

The E8 booking

People who book from Hackney live here. They are settled, they know exactly which table they want on Broadway Market, and they book the longer lengths because the point is the evening rather than the hour. A fair number work from home and ask for an early start, six or seven, which suits everyone: the roads are the only thing standing between her and the door.

Daytime runs differently. Sunday brings its own small traffic, people who have walked up to the Chatsworth Road market and would rather the afternoon carried on than stopped at two. Weekday afternoons are quiet enough that a booking made at noon is usually held within the hour, which is not true of a Friday at seven.

A Friday that starts at the Empire

Curtain up at half seven, out at ten, and four hours at £900 booked from seven so that nobody is running. She meets you in the bar of the Empire beforehand, you walk out afterwards into Mare Street with the whole of it still open, and there is a table waiting ten minutes north. The booking ends at eleven and the evening does not feel rationed at any point in it.

Without the theatre, three hours at £700 covers dinner and the walk home comfortably. Overnight, at £1,800, runs ten hours and is the usual choice for a Saturday when nobody has to be anywhere on the Sunday.

Companions on this patch

Cindy, Molly and Tina are the three anchored in E8. Jasmin and Nora are nine minutes south at the park, Danielle and Nancy ten minutes west. Anyone on the board will come, and the rate is the same whoever you name.

London Fields is the next station down the line. Dalston sits west along the Overground, Hoxton two stops further, and Bethnal Green lies south beyond the canal.