London’s like a black-browed brute that gets an unholy influence over you.

Robert Smythe Hichens (1864-1950), The Woman with the Fan

You know what London’s like on Sunday? About as lively as a wet night at Stonehenge.

Richard Gordon (1921-2017), Nuts in May

London is the largest of the bloated modern cities; London is the smokiest; London is the dirtiest; London is, if you will, the most miserable. But London is certainly the most amusing and the most amused.

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

If the parks be “the lungs of London” we wonder what Greenwich Fair is – a periodical breaking out, we suppose — a sort of spring rash.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Greenwich Fair

The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), Jacob’s Room