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Leicester Square to Covent Garden is the famous one. The stations are about 260 metres apart and Transport for London puts the walk at four minutes, yet people still queue for the lifts to travel a single stop on the Piccadilly line. Charing Cross to Embankment, Bank to Monument, Mansion House to Cannon Street and Warren Street to Euston Square are all in the same category.

Far longer than the ride itself. A single stop in central London takes roughly a minute and a half on the train, but you also spend around three minutes getting from the street down to the platform, about two minutes waiting, and two to three minutes coming back up at the other end. That is seven to eight minutes of overhead you pay whatever the distance, which is why short hops are so often quicker on foot.

Central London is generally safe to walk in, including after dark on busy streets, and walking is how most Londoners cover short distances. Use normal city sense: stay on lit main roads at night, keep your phone out of sight near the kerb, and be aware that traffic comes from the right if you are used to driving on the right. Pavements around the West End and the South Bank are busy but well lit and well used.

It can, but only until you reach your daily cap. A single off-peak Zone 1 fare is £3.00, so skipping two or three short hops a day adds up over a week. Once your fares have reached the daily cap, however, further journeys cost nothing, so from that point walking saves you time rather than money. Our Tube fare calculator works out when you'll hit the cap.

They are calculated estimates rather than routed directions. We measure the straight line between the stations using TfL's own ticket-hall coordinates, allow between 15 and 32 per cent on top because you cannot walk through buildings, route cross-river journeys via the nearest bridge, and divide by your chosen pace. It is calibrated against two walking times TfL states as figures and matches them closely, but it cannot see parks, railway lines or closed streets, so an individual result can be out by several minutes. TfL publishes its own walking Tube map with station-to-station times, and for a specific journey that or a mapping app is the better check.

Take the Tube when the distance is beyond about two kilometres, when you have luggage or small children, in heavy rain or extreme heat, late at night on quiet streets, or if you have mobility or stamina limits. Step-free routes also matter: some Tube stations have no lift access at all, so check TfL's step-free guide rather than assuming the train is the easier option.