London opens to you like a novel itself . . . It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, door, passsage, door. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.

Anna Quindlen (b.1953), Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City

Go where we may, rest where we will, Eternal London haunts us still.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852), Rhymes on the Road, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore

A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else.

Anon

Having a lovely time. Stop. If I ever find you in London, I will break your neck. Stop.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Rathbone, Telegram sent to brutal Schweidnitz POW camp commander, Karl Niemeyer, after Rathbone’s 150 mile escape through Germany into Holland, 1918

I’m always afraid someone’s going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, ‘Back to North London’.

Alan Parker (1944-2020)