The fret and fever of the day are o’er, / And London slumbers, but with murmurs faint, / Like Ocean, when she folds her waves to sleep: / ‘Tis the pure hour for poetry and thought; / When passions sink, and man surveys the heavens, / And feels himself immortal.

Robert Montgomery (b.1972), London, Religion and Poetry: Being Selections Spiritual and Moral

And there is London! – England’s heart and soul. / By the proud flowing of her famous Thames, / She circulates through countless lands and isles / Her greatness; gloriously she rules, / At once the awe and sceptre of the world.

Robert Montgomery (b.1972), London, Religion and Poetry: Being Selections Spiritual and Moral

London is a dizzying delight, full of pomp and pedigree, a place where high culture and cutting-edge trends feed off one another.

Suzane Rowan Kelleher, Donald Olson and Darwin Porter, Frommer’s Europe by Rail

Today’s London is a sprawling metropolis, teeming with energy and seemingly swallowing up all in its path, stretching from Surrey to Kent and Essex and receiving around 16 million visitors annually – over twice its own population.

Automobile Association of Britain, Illustrated Guide to Britain

London is a museum world, and the museum, like the cathedral or the palazzo in their day, is the dominant symbol of our postmodern times. A museum is an imposing assemblage of bits and pieces, history for attention-deficit amnesiacs.

Wendy Steiner (b.1949), The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism