London is a corporation by prescription, known by several names.

J. S. F., The Citizen’s Pocket Chronicle; Containing a Digested View of the History, Antiquity, and Temporal Government of the City of London

London is a huge, stony desert: even boredom feels endless there.

Sándor Márai (1900-1989), Portraits of a Marriage

London is a world of glamour, excitement, activity, amusement and all the attractions of worldly wit and casual relationships; but we also infer that it is a world of endlessly false appearances, a world in which manners substitute for morals, a world given over to cold deception, manipulation and exploitation.

Tony Tanner (1935-1998), Jane Austen

To the outsider, London is a sightseer’s theme park, a rich assembly of landmarks and historic buildings, where blue plaques chronicle the passing of time right back to the Middle Ages.

Anon, publicity material distributed to the audience in a preview screening, Dirty Pretty Things

Sir, London is a strange place, and you must look with a keen eye, and stay in it a great while, before you will be a master of half its expedients.

Randal, Squire Randal’s Excursion round London