In the title story from this collection of shorts, a teacher spends her lunch hour on Hampstead Heath, taking in both the view and the conversations of passers-by.
Recommended for: People watchers.
Monica Ali's Booker shortlisted debut takes its name and setting from the street at the centre of East London's Bangladeshi community, as 18-year old Nazneen moves to London from Bangladesh to marry an older man.
Recommended for: The culturally curious.
When young businessman Richard Mayhew saves the life of a girl named Door, he finds himself catapulted into the subterranean world of London Below, a city under the city, filled with fantastical creatures and places at once familiar and yet utterly bizarre.
Recommended for: Daydreamers.
Experimental in form, the story follows a young Chinese girl sent from her rural home to London to study English. She renames herself "Z", and meets an English boyfriend – a 44-year-old bisexual vegetarian who lives in Hackney. The language barrier, as it turns out, is the least of their problems.
Recommended for: International students.
Nina Stibbe moved to London in 1982, hired as a nanny to the sons of London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers and her ex-husband, director Stephan Frears. Cue candid encounters with some of London's literary elite, as neighbours such as Alan Bennett popped round for dinner.
Recommended for: Budding writers, nannies.
A beat novel focusing on poor West Indian migrant workers in 1950s London, as they live and work around Notting Hill and Bayswater.
Recommended for: Beatniks.
Moving backwards from the post-war lives of four characters, and ending in with their wartime exploits in 1941, The Night Watch moves around London and gives both a compelling account of the city in wartime, and of those forced to traverse it in secret, not for war, but for love.
Recommended for: Those who have ever felt the need to hide themselves.
On the eve of his wedding, Andy makes a drunken bet that he can travel through every single Tube station in a single day. Fail the bet and he won't be able to collect the Eurostar tickets he needs to get to his wedding in Paris.
Recommended for: Train enthusiasts.
Zadie Smith's startling debut, chronicling the lives of two families in a multi-racial North-West London suburb.
Recommended for: Fans of British social satire.
Predominantly set in San Francisco as part of Maupin's Tales of the City series, Babycakes contains a London sojourn featuring depictions of the 1980's gay scene through the eyes of American Michael Tolliver.
Recommended for: Anglophiles.
A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to host a party in her affluent Westminster home, and contemplates issues of class, society, sexuality, politics and love.
Recommended for: Feminists.
Taylor interviewed 80 Londoners to paint an oral portrait of the city as told by those who live and work here – from the tube train announcer to the Buckingham Palace guard.
Recommended for: The incurably curious.
A Scottish migrant arrives in London and wrecks havoc with the staid existence of Peckham's working class inhabitants.
Recommended for: Plucky Scots.
A suburban ghost story set around Highgate Cemetery, as American twins move into a flat bequeathed to them by an aunt they never met.
Recommended for: Literary horror fans.
A literary murder mystery set in the heart of Hackney, where a teminally ill writer stumbles across both a funeral-crashing young woman, and the plot that will kill her.
Recommended for: Those suffering writer's block.
A married MP engages in an affair with his son's fiancée in this poetic and brutal study of sexuality and human nature.
Recommended for: Politicians.
A young photographer traverses the world of West London cool; rock and roll music, Italian motor scooters, coffee bars and sharp clothes – what would come to be known as Mod culture.
Recommended for: Fans of the swinging 60s.
A Nigerian woman moves to the UK in search of a better life for herself and her children, only to be faced by the grim realities of 1960's London.
Recommended for: Young parents who think they've got it tough.
After the death of his father, Saul Garamond meets the mysterious King Rat, who takes Saul under his wing and pulls him into a centuries old war with the dangerous Piper.
Recommended for: Fans of grown up fairy tales.
A teacher begins an affair with a troubled student at a North London comprehensive school, risking her job and her family in the process.
Recommended for: Incorrigible gossips.
Much like Mrs. Dalloway, Saturday takes place over the course of a single day, as the neurosurgeon narrator prepares for a dinner party, navigating post-9/11 terrorism paranoia and pondering the assumed safety of the middle class life he has built.
Recommended for: Existentialists.
Divorced architect Matthew Halland sees London past and present all at once, as streets and buildings peel back layers and facades before him, offering up both the history of the city and a fresh perspective on his future.
Recommended for: Architecture buffs.
Widowed and with a daughter to provide for, Lev arrives in London from Eastern Europe seeking opportunity, only to find himself sleeping rough in Earl's Court. Eventually finding work and a girlfriend in affluent Muswell Hill, Lev begins to appreciate the strange customs of his adopted new home.
Recommended for: Outsiders.
The definitive biography of London, from Roman origins to modern times.
Recommended for: History buffs.
See also: From Hell by Alan Moore, How the Dead Live by Will Self, Soho by Keith Waterhouse, Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding, Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd, Adrift in Soho by Colin Wilson, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton, and A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch.