The tide of luxury has swept all the inhabitants from the open country – The poorest squire, as well as the richest peer, must have his house in town . . . The plough-boys, cow-herds, and lower hinds . . . swarm up to London, in hopes of getting into service, where they can live luxuriously and wear fine clothes, without being obliged to work; for idleness is natural to man.

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771), The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

The two only inconveniences of London are the excessive drinking of some foolish people, and the frequent fires.

William Fitzstephen (d.1191)

We saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame . . . It made me weep to see it.

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), Diary 2nd September 1666

Of all quarters in the queer adventurous amalgam called London, Soho is perhaps least suited to the Forsyte spirit . . . Untidy, full of Greeks, Ishmaelites, cats, Italians, tomatoes, restaurants, organs, coloured stuffs, queer names, people looking out of upper windows, it dwells remote from the British Body Politic.

John Galsworthy (1867-1933), The Forsythe Saga

London, the Metropolis of Great-Britain, has been complained of, for Ages past, as a Kind of Monster, with a Head enormously large, and out of all Proportion to its Body.

Josiah Tucker (1712-1799)