It is the glory of London that it is always ending and beginning anew, and that a visitor, with a good eye and indefatigable feet, will find in her travels all the Londons she has ever met in the pages of books, one atop the other, like the strata of the Earth.

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

The essential London scenes is a row of low identical houses set around a square.

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

They come, not to see what London is, or even what it was, but to confirm a kind of picture-postcard view of both, all red telephone kiosks and fog-wreathed alleyways.

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

One of the things she most liked about the city -apart from all its obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries, the exhilarating walks by the river- was that so few people ever asked you personal questions.

Julia Gregson (b.1947)

I believe we shall come to care about people less and less. The more people one knows the easier it becomes to replace them. It’s one of the curses of London.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)