91+ London Quotes & Captions to Inspire Your English Adventure [2020] (2024)

Looking for the best London Quotes and London Captions for Instagram or social-media? Look no further, asI have the ultimate list of quotes about London that are guaranteed to inspire!

London is one of those cities that we all “know” even if you haven’t personally visited it yet. We get this familiar feeling with London because of the famous landmarks and monuments that we often see in movies and TV shows. But actually being there and seeing these iconic places in person – is a completely indescribable experience.

On a budget? Or only have limited time to see London and all its infamous landmarks? Don’t worry – check out the 2 days in London itinerary which covers all the must-sees in the city.

These quotes about London span over time and genre. Some are well-known sayings that you may have heard before while others are newer less-known expressions. They will give you numerous viewpoints on the city and why it’s loved by so many people from across the world.

Here’s a great selection of quotes and sayings about London to get you excited about going on an English expedition.

Travel Quotes on London

London is a travel destination loved by all its visitors because of its diversity. From the city skyline and bustling multicultural metropolis to its stunning historic sights. You can’t forget about its lively and vibrant cultural scene either. A trip to London is always an exciting adventure.

Enjoy these quotes highlighting why London is the ultimate travel location and why you should book a trip – if you haven’t already.

1. “I travel continuously, and I see many cities, but there is nowhere like London.” – Norman Foster

2. “My Dad says that being a Londoner has nothing to do with where you’re born. He says that there are people who get off a jumbo jet at Heathrow, go through immigration waving any kind of passport, hop on the tube and by the time the train’s pulled into Piccadilly Circus, they’ve become a Londoner.” – Ben Aaronovitch

3. “If you’re curious, London’s an amazing place.” – David Bailey

4. “The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?” – Virginia Woolf

5. “London is a modern Babylon.” – Benjamin Disraeli

6. “Yes, London. You know, fish, chips, cup o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary-f*cking-Poppins. London!” – Dennis Farina

7. “The vibe of London as a city is captivating. It’s both fast-paced and extremely rushed but still has the calmness that would attract any big-city person.” – Ali Fazal

8. “A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else.” – Unknown

9. “I’ve been walking about London for the last 30 years, and I find something fresh in it every day.”- Walter Besant

10. “There’s nowhere else like London. Nothing at all, anywhere.” – Vivienne Westwood

11. “London is the epitome of our times, and the Rome of today.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. “Aesthetically, London is just beautiful; it’s a gorgeous city. The architecture, monuments, the parks, the small streets – it’s an incredible place to be.” – Sara Bareilles

13. “There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear – the city of London and the South Seas.” – Herman Melville

14. “I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it.” – V. S. Naipaul

15. “New York has a great energy, but London is better.” – Jaime Winstone

16. “When exploring London, you will come across lots of excitement by chance, so try to take everything in rather than just rushing around to all of the major tourist haunts.” – Richard Branson

17. “London always reminds me of a brain. It is similarly convoluted and circuitous. A lot of cities, especially American ones like New York and Chicago, are laid out in straight lines. Like the circuits on computer chips, there are a lot of right angles in cities like this. But London is a glorious mess.” – James Geary.

Inspirational Sayings about London

The city is home to several artists in the fields of culture, literature, and art. Think of famous artists like Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, and David Bowie. All of whom have graced us with famous quotes about London.

Not only are there brilliant London mottos and sayings out there but the city is full of unique facts. Check out these 80 incredible, fascinating, and fun facts about London.

Here are quotes that capture the true spirit of London life and what London is actually about.

18. “I think London’s sexy because it’s so full of eccentrics.” – Rachel Weisz

19. “In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.” – John Osborne

20. “A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, / Dirty and dusty, but as wide as eye / Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping / In sight, then lost amidst the forestry / Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping / On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy; / A huge, dun cupola, like a foolscap crown / On a fool’s head – and there is London Town.” – Lord Byron, IV Satiric London

21. “It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.” – George VI

22. “London, London, London town / You can toughen up or get thrown around.” – Kano, London Town

23. “Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” – Oscar Wilde

24. “I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air — or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circ*mstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

25. “London opens to you like a novel itself… It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, doors and passages. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.” – Anna Quindlen

26. “In London, everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in.” – Paddington Bear, Paddington

27. “If London is a watercolour, New York is an oil painting.” – Peter Shaffer

28. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” – Samuel Johnson

29. “A London boy, oh a London boy, your flashy clothes are your pride and joy, a London boy, a London boy, you’re crying out loud that you’re a London boy.” – David Bowie, The London Boys

30. “The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane.” – Stephen Fry

31. “A person who is tired of London is not necessarily tired of life; it might be that he just can’t find a parking place.” – Paul Theroux

32. “I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and Shakespeare.” – Ben Okri

33.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

34. “London goes beyond any boundary or convention. It contains every wish or word ever spoken, every action or gesture ever made, every harsh or noble statement ever expressed. It is illimitable. It is Infinite London.” – Peter Ackroyd

35. “ I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity? – Charlotte Brontë

36. “The man who can dominate a London dinner table can dominate the world.” – Oscar Wilde

37. “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!” – P.B. Shelley, From a letter to Maria Gisborne

38. “London, thou art the flower of cities all! Gemme of all joy, jasper of jocunditie.” – William Dunbar

39. “Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I love London so / Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I think of her wherever I go / I get a funny feeling inside of me / Just walking up and down / Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner / That I love London town.” – Hubert Gregg, Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner

40. “The City of London, whose resident population hardly equals that of Dover, but whose precincts over a million persons enter daily, Sunday excepted, on business bent.” – A. H. Beavan

41. “It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.” – Henry James

42. “London is a bad habit one hates to lose.” – William Sansom

43. “I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.” – Bram Stoker

44. “The parks be the lungs of London.” – Charles Dickens

Funny London Instagram Captions & Puns

Looking for a clever pun to use for your next London Instagram caption? Or want to share a laugh with your friends before your trip? Here are some London jokes and puns that are bound to get some chuckles.

45. The street art in London is very ad-mural-able.

46. Talk British to me.

47. Visiting Buckingham Palace, but I’m having a bad heir day.

48. This little piggy went to Camden Market.

49. The traffic in London is like a Piccadilly Circus.

50. Cheaper by the London.

51. I can’t be Thamed.

52. Having the best Thames in London!

53. Let’s cross that Tower Bridge when we get to it.

54. Watching the River Thames is one of the world’s most famous live streams.

55. London calling!

56. Where have you Ben all my life?

57. Feeling ticked off at Big Ben.

58. Eye came. Eye saw. Eye conquered London, Eye’m a fan!

59. Keeping my London Eye on the prize.

60. Sticks and scones may break my bones…

61. What a brew-tiful day!

62. Fifty Shades of Earl Grey.

63. I tried to grab a pic of London fog, but I mist.

64. Trying to make our way around London, but we don’t have the foggiest idea where we are!

65. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a ticket to London.

66. London is calling, and I must go.

London Quotes for When People Have Had Enough of the City

Though most people love London, it’s not always about sunshine and roses. The city has a darker side to it. These quotes show London in a different light than some of us might be used to.

67. “I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” – Groucho Marx

68. “The truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” – Jane Austen

69. “This melancholy London – I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.” – William Butler Yeats

70. “I walk to Oxford Street and climb on the number 8. It’s freezing and it starts to rain and it’s the ugliest bus I’ve ever seen, rattling down the ugliest streets, in the ugliest city, in the ugliest country, in the ugliest of all possible worlds.” – David Thewlis

71. “Nothing is certain in London but expense.” – William Shenstone

72. “I don’t know what London’s coming to — the higher the buildings, the lower the morals.” – Noel Coward

73. “London is a splendid place to live in for those who can get out of it.” – Lord Balfour

74. “There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit and the vermin of the world inhabit it and it’s filled with people who are filled with sh*t and it goes by the name of London.” – Stephen Sondheim

75. “Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It’s the second biggest cause of death among the English in general. Sheer boredom…” – Alexander McCall Smith

76. “London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don’t know.” – Oscar Wilde

77. “In London, the weather would affect me negatively. I react strongly to light. If it is cloudy and raining, there are clouds and rain in my soul.” – Jerzy Kosinski

78. “Wet weather in London, but when was it anything else?” – Cassandra Clare

London / River Thames Quotes

With a length of 215 miles (346 km), the River Thames goes right through the city center of London. It’s one of the city’s oldest and most iconic landmarks. Here are some quotes about this bustling body of water.

79. “The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.” – Benjamin Disraeli

80. “On Waterloo Bridge where we said our goodbyes, the weather conditions bring tears to my eyes. I wipe them away with a black woolly glove And try not to notice I’ve fallen in love.” – Wendy Cope

81. “ I have admired the romantic elegance of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, have felt the mystic message from a thousand glittering windows at sunset in New York, but to me the view of the London Thames from our hotel window transcends them all for utilitarian grandeur – something deeply human.” – Charles Chaplin

82. “Below us the Thames grew lighter, and all around below were the shadows – the dark shadows of buildings and bridges that formed the base of this dreadful masterpiece.” – Ernie Pyle

83. “Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew – Wanted to know what the River knew, Twenty Bridges or twenty-two, For they were young, and the Thames was old And this is the tale that River told.” – Rudyard Kipling, The River’s Tale

84. “Cause London is drowning, and I, I live by the river.” – The Clash, London Calling

85. “I think the Thames River is a really misunderstood river. Going through Chatham, and even London, it gets the reputation of being an inner-city river with not too much going on in regards to wildlife and even nature.” – Trevor Thompson

86. “Millions of people swarming like flies ’round Waterloo underground – Terry and Julie cross over the river where they feel safe and sound – And they don’t, need no friends – As long as they gaze on Waterloo Sunset, they are in paradise.” – The Kinks, Waterloo Sunset

87. “And if the Thames that ran beside them, sure and silver in the afternoon light, recalled a night long ago when the moon shone as brightly as a shilling on this same boy and girl, or if the stones of Blackfriars knew the tread of their feet and thought to themselves: At last, the wheel comes to a full circle, they kept their silence.” – Cassandra Clare

88. “London waxed and waned and waxed, fed always by the silvery lifeline of the Thames.” – David Piper

89. “And there is London! England’s heart and soul. By the proud flowing of her famous Thames, She circulates through countless lands and isles Her greatness; gloriously she rules, At once the awe and sceptre of the world.” – Robert Montgomery

90. “The Thames is no ordinary waterway, it is the golden thread of our nation’s history.” – Winston Churchill

91. “We could be on the Thames once a week cleaning it up. I’ve been motivated by the fact I live in London and the Thames River is the defining feature of this town. I don’t think a lot of people realize we have, right downtown in the heart of the city, anglers fishing for one of the 90 different breeds of fish that live in the river. It’s a pretty important and sensitive environmental ecosystem.” – Tom Cull

92. “If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.” – Margaret Thatcher

Harry Potter Quotes About London

When thinking about London and its famous authors – J.K. Rowling is often the first person that jumps to everyone’s mind. Author of the notorious Harry Potter series, it would only be right to include some of her London based quotes.

93. “Yes, said Dumbledore. He’ll have that scar forever. Couldn’t you do something about it, Dumbledore? Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London underground.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

94. “Don’t let the Muggles get you down! Try and come to London.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

95. “And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London lay, smokey and glittering, below them” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

96. “Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Did I Miss Any Quotes about London?

I could go on and on trying to cover all the wonderful quotes on London, there are just so many out there. I did my best to add what I think are the best quotes about the city. However, if you feel I have missed a London quote that my readers would enjoy and should be added – get in touch. I’ll see if I can add it to the list.

If you feel inspired and want to use any of my quotes or Instagram caption ideas – I would love for you to tag me in it so I can see them in action. Aslo check out my Instagram here,Jones Around The World!

Planning a trip to Europe?

My travel blog is filled with hundreds of articles, destination guides, itineraries, beautiful photos, and so much more! I’d love for you to take a look at a few more, and feel free to reach out with any questions you’ve got! I’m always happy to help!

• The 30 Best U.K Music Festivals To Experience Before You Die
• Top 19 Music Festivals in Paris To Experience Before You Die
• 2 Days in Paris Itinerary | How to Spend 48 Hours Exploring Paris
• Top 10 Amazing Things to do in the French Riviera
• 10 Awesome Things to do in Paris, France
• 2 Days in Copenhagen | The Best 48 Hours/ Weekend Guide to Copenhagen
• 2 Days in Amsterdam | The Perfect 48 Hours in Amsterdam Itinerary
• Flashpacking Finland | My Northern Lights Bucket List Adventure
• The 20 Best Techno Festivals in Europe to Experience This Summer
• 2 Days in Budapest | The Ultimate 48 Hour Weekend Guide to Budapest
• 2 Days In Berlin itinerary | How to Explore Berlin in 48 Hours
• The 20 Best Music Festivals in Sweden
• The Ultimate Weekend in Rome Itinerary
• The 10 Best Things To Do in Port Ercole
• 30 Music Festivals in Europe to Experience Before You Die

Thanks for reading about all these amazing London Quotes!

Share these London Quotes & London Captions with your Instagram crew!