South Kensington Chauffeur Service

Everything here takes its shape from the institutions along Exhibition Road: the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert, with Imperial College standing behind them and the Royal Albert Hall at the top of the road, looking across Kensington Gore at the Albert Memorial. Around them the residential streets are handsome and white-stuccoed, Onslow Square, Thurloe Square, Queen's Gate. Passengers we carry are families on a museum day, concert-goers of an evening, and visitors staying in the hotels beside the station.

Laid as a single-surface shared street, Exhibition Road allows very little stopping, and on a wet Saturday, with the museum queues spilling out on to it, it becomes near enough impassable. Our preference is a set-down on Thurloe Place, on Cromwell Place, or over on the Queen's Gate side, depending which entrance you are after. Cromwell Road is a red route: no stopping whatsoever. Once a concert at the Albert Hall lets out, the roads around Kensington Gore fill inside a few minutes, so the pick-up point gets agreed well clear of that crush.

Why anyone travels here is unusually obvious: three great museums, a concert hall, a university, and the short run of shops on Bute Street and Old Brompton Road. A museum day goes better when the car is held rather than sent away. Small children, coats and a pushchair turn a taxi hunt on Cromwell Road into a miserable finish to an otherwise fine afternoon. Evening performances end at a known hour, which makes the return leg simple to plan down to the minute.

Straight out along the A4, Heathrow generally takes 35 to 60 minutes, and for a morning flight there are few easier central addresses than SW7. Gatwick comes to 60 to 95 minutes. Crossing town to London City is normally 45 to 75 minutes. Going on to Oxford, Bath or the West Country, the M4 is a short run west, and a Saturday morning departure from South Kensington hurts far less than the same thing from the West End.