London Calling: 35 Novels Set in the Big Smoke

London! It’s a city that breathes stories. Foggy Victorian alleys, bustling modern streets, hidden magical worlds – writers just can’t seem to stay away. If you love getting lost in a book that brings this amazing city to life, here are some novels you might enjoy.

They cover all sorts of genres and eras, each with its own unique take on London.

  1. 1
    Bleak House by Charles Dickens

    This one pulls you right into the heart of a Victorian London obsessed with a court case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, that seems endless. Fortunes vanish and lives get tangled up in it.

    You follow Esther Summerson, an orphan whose past holds surprising secrets, and meet characters from every level of society, from the grandest houses to the grimmest slums touched by fog and mystery.

  2. 2
    About a Boy by Nick Hornby

    In contemporary London, Will Freeman lives a cool, detached life off his dad’s royalties. He doesn’t need anyone. Then he meets Marcus, a 12-year-old boy who is decidedly uncool and has a complicated family situation.

    Their unexpected bond forms, and watching them figure things out and accidentally help each other grow is funny and surprisingly touching.

  3. 3
    Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

    Bridget Jones chronicles her year in London with hilarious honesty. Her diary entries track her attempts to quit smoking, cut down on drinking, lose weight, and find a nice sensible boyfriend.

    Instead, she finds herself caught between her charmingly dodgy boss, Daniel Cleaver, and the initially standoffish Mark Darcy. It’s a relatable snapshot of single life and career struggles in the city.

  4. 4
    Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

    Richard Mayhew is just a regular guy with an office job in London until he stops to help an injured young woman named Door. Suddenly, he’s invisible to his old life and pulled into “London Below,” a hidden world under the city streets.

    This London is full of bizarre characters like the Marquis de Carabas, terrifying assassins, and places you thought only existed in Tube station names. It’s a dark, imaginative journey.

  5. 5
    20,000 Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton

    This book takes you into the smoky atmosphere of London pubs in the 1920s and 30s. Around The Midnight Bell pub, three lives connect. Bob, a waiter, nurses dreams and falls hard for Jenny, a woman caught in difficult circumstances.

    Meanwhile, Ella, the pub’s barmaid, quietly loves Bob. Hamilton shows the small hopes and deep disappointments of ordinary people against the backdrop of the city’s nightlife.

  6. 6
    The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

    It’s the 1970s, and Karim Amir is a mixed-race teenager eager to escape the London suburbs. Life gets stranger when his unassuming father suddenly becomes a kind of spiritual guru to the suburbanites.

    This change throws Karim into London’s vibrant, messy worlds of punk, theatre, and parties, where he tries to figure out who he is amidst the cultural shifts and his own desires.

  7. 7
    The Clerkenwell Tales by Peter Ackroyd

    Step back into London in 1399, a city simmering with religious prophecies and political plots. Sister Clarice, a nun having unsettling visions, is one of many characters caught up in the tension.

    Ackroyd immerses you in the sights, sounds, and fears of medieval London as secret societies and conspiracies challenge the old order.

  8. 8
    Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd

    Victorian London’s Limehouse district lives in fear. A brutal killer, nicknamed the “Golem,” is on the loose.

    This atmospheric story weaves together the trial of Elizabeth Cree, accused of poisoning her husband, with the life of famous music hall star Dan Leno and the investigation into the horrifying murders. The connections between them slowly surface in the gaslit streets.

  9. 9
    Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

    Peter Grant is a London police constable and an apprentice wizard. When an American student is found dead deep in the Baker Street tube station, killed by a strange shard of pottery, Peter gets the case.

    His investigation leads him into the forgotten tunnels and hidden communities beneath London, where magical conflicts and old secrets come to light.

  10. 10
    Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

    The story kicks off with a body pulled from the Thames River. This event sets in motion a tale about a disputed inheritance that affects everyone from the nouveau riche Veneerings to the kind-hearted Boffins, who suddenly find themselves wealthy.

    You meet characters like Gaffer Hexam, who makes his living searching the river for corpses, and explore the corrupting influence of money in London society.

  11. 11
    4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

    While traveling by train, Elspeth McGillicuddy witnesses a shocking event through the window of a passing train: a woman being strangled. When the police find no body, she turns to her friend, the ever-observant Miss Marple.

    Miss Marple sends the capable Lucy Eyelesbarrow undercover into a suspect household, Rutherford Hall, to investigate a crime that seems to have vanished into thin air.

  12. 12
    Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes

    Jump into the electric atmosphere of London in the summer of 1958. A young freelance photographer navigates the emerging youth culture of coffee bars, jazz clubs, and sharp suits.

    He captures the energy of the “absolute beginners,” the first teenagers, but also witnesses the rising racial tensions that explode in the Notting Hill riots. It’s a snapshot of a city on the cusp of change.

  13. 13
    At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie

    Miss Marple stays at Bertram’s Hotel in London, an establishment famous for recreating the perfect atmosphere of the Edwardian era. Everything seems impeccably traditional and peaceful. But Miss Marple’s sharp eyes notice inconsistencies beneath the surface calm.

    Soon, a missing clergyman and other strange incidents suggest something sinister hides behind the hotel’s respectable facade.

  14. 14
    The Cockroach by Ian McEwan

    This sharp political satire flips Kafka’s idea. A cockroach wakes up one morning to find it has transformed into Jim Sams, the British Prime Minister.

    Set firmly in the corridors of power in modern-day London, the story follows the cockroach-turned-PM as it navigates political crises with a decidedly insectoid perspective on human affairs.

  15. 15
    The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch

    It’s Christmas 1867 in Victorian London, and gentleman amateur detective Charles Lenox investigates the murders of two journalists in the heart of the newspaper world, Fleet Street.

    As Lenox delves into the competitive and sometimes murky world of the press, he must balance his investigation with his own political aspirations and personal life.

  16. 16
    A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch

    Charles Lenox, now married and settling down, is pulled back into detective work when a footman is found murdered in a wealthy Mayfair household. His investigation takes him behind the elegant facades of London’s most exclusive neighborhood.

    He uncovers secrets and hidden connections that show the darker side of high society.

  17. 17
    The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell

    Part of the “A Dance to the Music of Time” sequence, this novel finds narrator Nick Jenkins navigating London life in the 1930s.

    Through Jenkins’ observations, you experience the shifting social circles, artistic ambitions, romantic entanglements, and financial dealings of his friends and acquaintances against the backdrop of a London heading towards uncertain times.

  18. 18
    Adrift in Soho by Colin Wilson

    In the 1950s, young Harry Preston leaves his provincial hometown for London’s Soho. He falls in with the bohemian crowd of writers, artists, and thinkers who frequent the area’s pubs and coffee bars.

    He drifts through conversations, relationships, and temporary jobs, searching for meaning and connection in the city’s creative, rebellious heart.

  19. 19
    Angel Pavement by J. B. Priestley

    The quiet lives of the staff at Twigg & Dersingham, a small firm in Angel Pavement, London, are disrupted by the arrival of the mysterious Mr. Golspie. He brings promises of new business and prosperity from abroad.

    Priestley explores how this sudden change impacts each employee’s hopes, fears, and personal dramas during the uneasy time just before the Great Depression.

  20. 20
    The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark

    Dougal Douglas, a charismatic and unsettling young man from Scotland, arrives in the London suburb of Peckham. He gets jobs at two different firms simultaneously and claims to be doing “human research.”

    His mischievous and disruptive presence soon throws the community into chaos, unearthing secrets, provoking arguments, and even leading to violence.

  21. 21
    The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill

    This is one of the very first locked-room mysteries. In London’s East End, a well-known philanthropist is found dead inside a room locked from the inside, with no possible way in or out. The police are baffled.

    The story follows the investigation with wit and suspense, exploring how such an impossible crime could have occurred in the heart of Victorian London.

  22. 22
    The Book of Dave by Will Self

    This novel switches between present-day London and a flooded, post-apocalyptic future London centuries later. Dave Rudman, a disgruntled London cabbie, writes down his angry thoughts and buries the text.

    In the future, this “Book of Dave” is unearthed and becomes the sacred text for a bizarre religion governing the island communities scattered across the drowned city.

  23. 23
    A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison

    This book offers an unflinching look at life in the Jago, a notorious slum in London’s East End during the late 19th century. Young Dicky Perrott tries to find a path out of the violence and extreme poverty that define his neighborhood.

    Morrison shows the brutal realities and limited choices faced by those trapped in the Jago’s desperate environment.

  24. 24
    City of Spades by Colin MacInnes

    Follow Johnny Fortune, a young Nigerian immigrant, as he arrives in 1950s London eager to experience life. He plunges into the city’s social scene, encountering the excitement and the prejudices of the time.

    The story explores the experiences of London’s growing black community, dealing with identity, belonging, and the search for connection in a vibrant, challenging city.

  25. 25
    Concrete Island by J. G. Ballard

    Architect Robert Maitland crashes his Jaguar off a West London flyover. He finds himself injured and stranded on a large, derelict traffic island overgrown with weeds, trapped between busy motorways.

    Completely cut off from the city noise above, he must use his wits and resources to survive in this forgotten urban wasteland, creating his own strange kingdom.

  26. 26
    King Solomon's Carpet by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)

    This story unfolds in a large, dilapidated house near a London Underground line, home to an odd collection of people. Jarvis, the owner, is obsessed with the Tube’s history and complex network.

    The lives of the tenants, each strangely connected to the Underground in some way, begin to intersect as hidden passions and dangerous secrets related to the railway system emerge.

  27. 27
    The 12.30 from Croydon by Freeman Wills Crofts

    This clever crime novel is told mostly from the killer’s point of view. Charles Swinburn is in financial trouble and sees murder as the only way out. He meticulously plans to kill his wealthy uncle during an airplane flight from Croydon Aerodrome to Paris.

    You follow his careful preparations and the execution of his plan, then watch as Inspector French slowly closes in.

  28. 28
    After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

    Julia Martin is adrift after her relationship with Mr. Mackenzie ends, leaving her financially precarious. The story follows her movements between Paris and London. She revisits old acquaintances and family members, but finds little comfort.

    Rhys captures Julia’s deep sense of loneliness, displacement, and the quiet desperation of a woman struggling to maintain her independence and identity.

  29. 29
    The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

    Imagine a London ruled by magicians who derive their power from summoning and controlling djinn and other spirits. Nathaniel, a young magician’s apprentice hungry for revenge, secretly summons Bartimaeus, an ancient, powerful, and extremely sarcastic djinni.

    Nathaniel orders Bartimaeus to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, an act that plunges them both into a world of political plots and magical dangers. The banter between the two is unforgettable.

  30. 30
    Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill

    When Apryl inherits her mysterious great-aunt Lillian’s apartment in a posh London building, she finds it hasn’t been touched since Lillian’s death decades ago. The place feels wrong.

    Soon, terrifying sounds, shadows, and unsettling artwork related to a reclusive artist who once lived in Apartment 16 begin to reveal a horrifying presence within the building’s walls.

  31. 31
    At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald

    Welcome to the Temple Stage School, an eccentric institution in 1960s London run by the formidable Freddie Wentworth. The school trains children for theatre and film.

    Fitzgerald gives you a funny and perceptive look at the chaotic lives of the talented but challenging child actors, the struggling adults who teach them, and Freddie’s constant efforts to keep the unconventional school afloat.

  32. 32
    The Blackheath Poisonings by Julian Symons

    Set in the respectable London suburb of Blackheath during the Victorian era, this mystery involves two interconnected families rocked by a series of poisonings. What seems like accidental death soon looks like murder.

    As investigators look closer, long-buried family secrets, financial motives, and hidden resentments come to the surface within the households.

  33. 33
    The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti

    Borribles are runaway kids living wild in London who never grow up (their ears become pointed as a sign). They live by their wits in the city’s hidden corners.

    In the first book, “The Borribles,” a group of them embarks on a dangerous mission across London into enemy territory – the Rumbles’ underground kingdom beneath Battersea – to stop their rivals from expanding. It’s a gritty adventure about survival and freedom.

  34. 34
    The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge

    Freda and Brenda work together at an Italian-run wine-bottling factory in London. Freda, large and bossy, plans a company outing to the countryside, hoping for romance with one of the managers. Brenda, quiet and recently separated, reluctantly agrees to come along.

    The disastrous outing takes a dark and unexpected turn, described with Bainbridge’s signature blend of sharp observation and black humor.

  35. 35
    The Chelsea Murders by Lionel Davidson

    A series of bizarre and gruesome murders strikes London’s Chelsea neighborhood, targeting artistic and bohemian types. Each victim is left with a strange clue or symbol. The police race against time to understand the pattern and catch the elusive killer before they strike again.

    The novel captures the atmosphere of 1970s Chelsea while delivering a suspenseful chase.