Where to stay in London: nine areas, and our hotels in each

This is the London most visitors picture. Soho is the tight, irregular grid of narrow streets and restaurants west of Charing Cross Road; Covent Garden is the piazza, the market halls and the theatres east of it, with Chinatown and Leicester Square to the south. From Cambridge Circus, where the two meet, Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square are nine minutes on foot and the British Museum eleven, so most days need no Tube at all.

The cost is noise and money. Westminster council's own licensing study puts the borough's densest cluster of licensed premises at the south end of Dean, Frith and Greek Streets, and the complaints it receives about noise in the street and from venues peak at 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Street-facing rooms hear it, and rooms here are small for what they cost.

Tottenham Court Road has the Elizabeth line, 33 minutes direct from Heathrow, plus the Central and Northern; Leicester Square adds the Piccadilly. Hazlitt's is on Frith Street, five minutes from Tottenham Court Road: a 1718 house with steep stairs and no restaurant, which in Soho is no hardship, for couples who want the old building and the theatres. The City, the Tower and the East End are Tube rides rather than walks.

The South Bank is the riverside walk from the London Eye past the Southbank Centre and the National Theatre to Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe. Staying on it puts the river at the end of the street and concerts, theatre and galleries within a stroll, with the West End over the water rather than around you.

From Waterloo station, the National Theatre is seven minutes on foot, Covent Garden 17 over Waterloo Bridge, Trafalgar Square 17 and Westminster Abbey 19, and Tate Modern is 17 in the other direction. Waterloo has the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City lines; Southwark station is on the Jubilee, and Blackfriars has the Circle and District plus Thameslink trains to Gatwick in 35 minutes.

The riverside is busy into the evening, but the streets behind it, Upper Ground among them, are offices and stage doors and quiet at night. Sea Containers London sits on the Thames Path by Blackfriars Bridge, five minutes along the river from Blackfriars station's Bankside entrance, and suits a couple who want dinner, cocktails and a film without leaving the building; the river view is a paid upgrade. The trade-off is the late evening, when Soho's bars and late tables are across the water.

Oxford Street is the seam. South of it, Mayfair is an 18th-century grid of squares and mews that Westminster council describes as the home of specialist shops, galleries and tailors, with Green Park and Hyde Park on two sides. North of it, Marylebone is Georgian terraces and squares around Marylebone High Street, with the Wallace Collection on Manchester Square and Regent's Park at the top. Both are much calmer after dark than Soho, which is the reason to stay.

From Bond Street station, Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park is 13 minutes on foot, the Wallace Collection eight, Regent's Park 17 and the Shaftesbury Avenue theatres 20. Bond Street has the Elizabeth line, 31 minutes from Heathrow and two minutes from Tottenham Court Road, plus the Central and Jubilee; Marble Arch is Central line only.

Claridge's is on Brook Street in Mayfair, three minutes from Bond Street, for an occasion; The Zetter Marylebone is 24 rooms on Seymour Street, three minutes from Marble Arch, for a couple. The trade-off is money and evenings: Claridge's starts around £750 a night in January, and Soho's late tables are a Tube stop or a 20-minute walk away.

This is the food end of the riverside. Borough Market is five minutes from London Bridge station, open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays, and the market itself warns that Saturday afternoons are the crowded time. Around it are Southwark Cathedral and the railway viaducts into the station. On foot, the Tower of London is 13 minutes away, Tate Modern 15 and St Paul's 21.

London Bridge station is why it works. The Jubilee line reaches Westminster in four minutes and Bond Street in eight, the Northern line runs one stop to Bank, and Thameslink trains run direct to Gatwick in 29 minutes. The price of that is bustle: this is a commuter station first, and the streets immediately around it are built for passing through.

Shangri-La The Shard, London takes levels 34 to 52 of the Shard, two minutes from the station, and is here for the view: floor-to-ceiling glass in every room, far above any street noise, for a special occasion. The trade-off is the West End, which is a train ride rather than a walk; Covent Garden is 42 minutes on foot.

Westminster is the London of the postcards: Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St James's Park and Buckingham Palace. It is a government district, and it feels like one after the offices shut. South-west of it, Pimlico is the grid of cream stucco terraces and garden squares Thomas Cubitt began building in 1835, residential and still, with parades of small shops and Tate Britain on the river at its eastern edge.

From Pimlico station, Tate Britain is eight minutes on foot, Westminster Abbey 22, Buckingham Palace 27 and Trafalgar Square 36. Pimlico is on the Victoria line only, four minutes to Green Park and six to Oxford Circus, and the line runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays. Victoria station, at the northern edge, adds the District and Circle lines and the Gatwick Express, 31 minutes to the airport.

Artist Residence London is a ten-bedroom townhouse on Cambridge Street with a neighbourhood restaurant downstairs, eleven minutes from Victoria and thirteen from Pimlico, and suits a second visit. It has no lift. The trade-off is life after dark: there is little of it, Soho is a Tube ride away, and every walk beyond Westminster is a long one.

King's Cross used to be somewhere you passed through. The stations still set the tone, St Pancras International for Eurostar and King's Cross for the trains north, but behind them the Victorian goods yard and coal drops beside the Regent's Canal now hold Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard, with restaurants and shops nine and eleven minutes from the station.

From King's Cross St Pancras, the British Library is five minutes on foot and the British Museum 25; Covent Garden is 35, or six minutes on the Piccadilly line, which also runs direct to Heathrow in just under an hour. The Victoria, Northern, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines stop here too, and the Victoria and Piccadilly run all night on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Standard, London faces St Pancras across Euston Road, two minutes from the station, and suits design people, late nights and early trains. That road is the catch: it is a main artery that carries traffic around the clock, and the blocks right around the stations are built for crowds with luggage rather than for an evening stroll. North of the canal is where the evenings are.

The City is London's financial district, and two numbers explain staying in it: 614,500 people work there and 8,600 live there, by the City of London Corporation's own count. From Monday to Friday it is crowded and dear. From Friday evening to Monday morning the streets go quiet, and prices run the other way from the rest of London: The Ned costs less at the weekend than midweek.

From Bank station, Leadenhall Market is seven minutes on foot, St Paul's Cathedral ten, Borough Market 14 across London Bridge, the Tower of London 16 and Tate Modern 18. Bank has the Central, Northern and Waterloo & City lines and the DLR, 23 minutes to London City Airport. The Central line reaches Tottenham Court Road in six minutes and runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Ned fills Lutyens's former Midland Bank at the Bank junction, two minutes from the station, and suits people who want the building and its restaurants as much as the room. The trade-off is everything outside it after hours: the West End is a Tube ride, and a City Sunday can feel shut.

Paddington is a station district, and the station is the reason to stay. The Heathrow Express reaches the airport in 15 minutes, four times an hour, for £26 on the day or from £10 booked 30 days or more ahead, and the Elizabeth line takes 28 minutes for £14.60, then carries on to Bond Street in three minutes and Tottenham Court Road in five.

Around it are Victorian terraces and garden squares, Norfolk Square among them, and the canal basin behind the station. On foot, Little Venice is ten minutes, the Italian Gardens in Kensington Gardens 13, and the Diana Memorial Playground and Marble Arch 21 each. Paddington also has the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines, but none of them runs all night, so late nights end in a taxi or a night bus.

The Pilgrm is on London Street, two minutes from the station, in Victorian townhouses that put the money into the beds; it starts around £184 a night in January and suits a short stay or a first or last night. The trade-off is the evening, when most of what you came to see is a train ride away and the streets around the station are busy rather than charming.

East of the City, Shoreditch is where London goes out: bars, clubs and restaurants around Shoreditch High Street, with Old Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane a few minutes' walk south. Bethnal Green, further east, is residential and plainer, with Young V&A, the free museum for children and families, by the station, Victoria Park to the north-east and the Sunday flower market on Columbia Road.

From Bethnal Green station, Young V&A is four minutes on foot, Brick Lane 17, Columbia Road 18 and Old Spitalfields Market 27. Bethnal Green station is on the Central line, which reaches Tottenham Court Road in 12 minutes and runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays; Shoreditch High Street is on the Overground's Windrush line, which also runs through the night at weekends.

Town Hall Hotel is on Patriot Square, five minutes from Bethnal Green station, in a listed Edwardian town hall with Da Terra's two Michelin stars on the ground floor and apartment-sized rooms upstairs from about £173 a night in January. It suits a second visit built around dinner, booked for Da Terra's Wednesday to Saturday service, since the hotel serves no dinner on Sundays. The trade-off is distance: every famous sight is a Tube ride away, and St Paul's is the best part of an hour on foot.