I do hate the City of London! It is the only thing whichever comes between us.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1900), A Duet with an Occasional Chorus, 1899

London is the epitome of our times, and Rome of to-day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

You are now / In 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 depth what treasures!

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), letter to Maria Gisborne, 1820

High Lords, deep Statesmen, / Duchesses, and Whores, / All ranks and stations, Publicans and Peers, / Grooms, Lawyers, / Fiddlers, Bawds, and Auctioneers; / Prudes and Coquettes, the Ugly and the Fair, / The Pert, the Prim, the Dull, the Debonair; / The Weak, the Strong, the Humble and the Proud, / All help’d to form the motley, mingled Crowd.

Count William Combe (1741-1823)

The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination, is, that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist, and that the poet, the mystic, and the hero may hope to confront their counterparts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)