When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.

Bette Midler (b.1945), The Unofficial Guide to London

Our haughty life is crowned with darkness, / Like London with its own black wreath.

William Wordsworth (1779-1850), Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg

A city like London was always going to be a paradox, the best of it so very riddled with the opposite, so Swiss-cheesed with moral holes.

China Tom Miéville (b.1972), Kraken

London is among the most vibrant, fascinating cities in the world, seemingly limitless in its variety, but it’s also sprawling and cacophonous, making impossible demands on our time, attention and purse.

Henry Eliot and Matt Lloyd-Rose, Curiocity, in pursuit of London

The greatest glory that has ever come to me was to be swallowed up in London, not knowing a soul, with no means of subsistence, and the fun of working till the stars went out.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937)