Massage near Paddington station, before you even unpack

Paddington station is how most of the studio’s visitors arrive in London. The Heathrow Express ends here, the Elizabeth line runs through, and the streets on the south side — Praed Street, Norfolk Square, Sussex Gardens, Craven Road — are lined with the hotels that most people arriving on a budget have stayed in at least once. The studio is a private room on Leinster Gardens in Bayswater, seven to twelve minutes’ walk from most of them and five minutes in a cab.

Most guests from around the station fall into two groups. Travellers, who have just landed and want a full body massage before their first night so that the jet lag never quite arrives — there is a whole note on that in my notes. And people who work near the station or at St Mary’s, who book an after-work slot and walk over through Bayswater, which is a pleasanter end to the day than the Bakerloo line.

For both, the arrangement is the same: one masseuse, one room, no reception, an hour that is actually an hour. Message with a rough time and you will have the address and door instructions back within minutes — often before you have cleared the ticket barrier.

Getting here from Paddington station

Leave the station by the Praed Street exit and walk down London Street to Craven Road; follow Craven Road west — it becomes Craven Hill — and Leinster Gardens is a short turn off it. Thirteen minutes, flat, step-free from the platforms to the building entrance. With luggage, a cab from the rank on Eastbourne Terrace takes five minutes.