The course engages with London and Paris as sites of visual fascination in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through their development as vibrant, expanding metropolises. It examines the physical geography of both cities in the period, the architecture of their streetscapes and their monumental and public sculpture, as well as the emergence of the public art exhibition, museum culture, theatre and urban planning projects. In addition, it explores the diversity of spaces encountered in the metropolis in the period, with their focuses on, for example, trade and consumption, as well as the existence of marginalised and ‘imagined’ spaces. Central to our consideration of both cities will be the mediation of London and Paris through literature, print culture and paintings.