London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow / At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore / Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more. / Yet in its depths what treasures!

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Earth, yet it is governed with the same Ease, and with less Trouble to the Subject, than many petty Villages in other Parts of the World.

Robert Campbell (1769–1846)

It really is an insane city . . . its intelligentsia is so hurried in the head that nothing stays there; its glamour smells of goat; there’s no difference between good and bad.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

I behold London; a Human awful wonder of God!

William Blake (1757-1827), Jerusalem

The Filth, Sir, of some Parts of the Town, and the Inequality and Ruggedness of others, cannot but in the Eyes of Foreigners disgrace our Nation, and incline them to imagine us a People, not only without Delicacy, but without Government.

Lord Tyrconnell (1750-1805)