Longford UB7: one road, a stream and Terminal 5 over the hedge

Heathrow Terminal 5 station is about twenty minutes walking from the village, or five by road. It is the closest village to the airport and it manages to feel like the furthest, largely because the walk goes along a hedge rather than through anything. West Drayton station is roughly thirty five minutes on foot, which is a planning figure rather than a suggestion.

The last Elizabeth line service back towards town from the airport goes at around half past eleven, and the Piccadilly line runs later. Worth knowing before anyone plans an early night that turns out not to be one.

The Bath Road hotel at the Longford end carries Terminal 5 in its name, which makes it the village hotel in practice if not in title. A few minutes west and south are the two other Terminal 5 rooms: the glass-atrium house at TW6 2GD, joined to the terminal by a five minute covered walkway, and the larger one at SL3 0FF, which is actually out on Poyle Road at Colnbrook.

Most Longford evenings happen at the Bath Road house or at one of those two. The desk has no relationship with any of them; she arrives, she is your guest, and the only part the hotel plays in it is the lift.

The White Horse on the Bath Road at Longford is the oldest building in the village and the only place to have a drink in it. It has been serving travellers since the road west actually was the road west, which is a pleasing thing to think about while a 777 goes over the roof.

And that is genuinely the whole list. No restaurant, no second pub, no shops worth the walk. Dinner is at your hotel. Anybody who tells you there is a drive worth making from Longford is selling you a retail park. The compensation is that the village goes properly dark and properly silent, a mile from Terminal 5, which almost nobody believes until they stand in it.

Nearly every guest here is on a dawn departure. Hester therefore plans Longford evenings from the flight rather than from the clock: an early start, dinner at a sensible hour, and an end that leaves you a real night's sleep rather than three hours of it.

For a flight before seven in the morning she will usually suggest a longer booking that finishes early over a short one that finishes late. It costs more and it is a far better night, and she will say so rather than take the easier sale.

Liana treats Longford as the quietest address she works and is entirely comfortable with a pause, which most guests discover halfway through that they are too. Sonya gives the simplest directions on this site without looking anything up, eats early, and keeps her evenings shaped around your alarm rather than her own.

Both are out this far west less often than the others, so ask early. Everyone in the hall will travel here at the same rate.

South across the perimeter road is Terminal 5 and its pair of hotels. North east through the lanes, Harmondsworth has the barn and the church. East along the road the hotels begin again on the Bath Road strip, and behind them Sipson sits at junction four. Colnbrook is a few minutes west over the motorway, in another county.