Beginning with an introductory survey of the variety of literary representations and responses to the city, and the relations between self and urban space, "Writing London" follows the shaping of the urban consciousness from William Blake to Charles Dickens and through readings of Shelley, Barbauld, Byron, DeQuincy, Engels and Wordsworth. It concludes with an afterword which, in developing insights into the relationship between writing and the city, questions the heritage industry's reinvention of London, while arguing for a new understanding of the urban spirit.