Where is London's twin city?

[Taavi]

London plays a huge role in Bookhounds of London, obviously. But a feature of Lovecraftian cities is that they come in pairs: Ib and Sarnath. Irem and The Nameless City. Carcassonne and Carcosa. Samarcand and Sarkomand. Arkham and Salem. New York and Rl'yeh, even. Often one is entirely Lovecraft and the other is "real" yet also mythical or fantastical, this giving the Lovecraft invention the verisimilitude of association (there's also alien cities which tend to have their pair beneath them, in a trope which is far too freudian/marxist for my purpose).

So, my question is, what or where is London's twin?

[Tigger_MK4]

Lets see... In lovecrafts time, it was a bustling port visited by many foreigners from strange lands....dylath leen ?

[Steff Worthington]

Lets see... In lovecrafts time, it was a bustling port visited by many foreigners from strange lands....dylath leen ?

Maybe, I'd argue Celephais... especially as it has New Cornwall not to far away and was dreamt by a Briton.

[Taavi]

Hmmm - I think Dylath-leen has a lot going for it; a tower, trading town, high crime rate. Celephais seems too high-fantasy.

What about non-Dreamlands? Classically London was the New Troy of course, but apart from "Beseiged by greeks" that doesn't really inspire much for me. Biblically inspired types always compare it to Babylon (but then, pretty much everywhere gets compared to babylon).

[GBSteve]

There's Un Lun Dun, London Below, London Revenant, Roof World ... London is always its own twin.

[WinstonP]

Isn't London the new Troy... Or was that a new Jerusalem?

A New Troy (not really a classical claim, but propaganda from Geoffrey of Monmouth) might be of interest if you imagine yourself a new Agamemnon or Ulyssees....

[Taavi]

There's Un Lun Dun, London Below, London Revenant, Roof World ... London is always its own twin.

The problem I have with "undercities" and shadow-twins in Lovecraft (in Shadow out of Time and @tMoM respectively) is that they are such obvious metaphors for lovecraft's racial/sexual/classist prejudices. Unrestrained, fecund black things that did all the work and eventually overthrew their pallid scientist masters. In a seedy Bookhounds game, the PCs are more like the Shoggoths than the Elder Things - they are already part of the "underworld" of criminals, occultists, mad bibliophiles etc - so positing an underworld beneath their underworld doesn't work for me, narratively speaking.

[davel]

There's Un Lun Dun, London Below, London Revenant, Roof World ... London is always its own twin.

Or even co-joined Siamese twin of North (of the Thames) London & South (of the Thames) London.

[GBSteve]

The Descendant mentions London and the Nameless City, Lindum (Lincoln) and Atlantis. You could also twin it with Kadath if you liked.

[Taavi]

A new piece of data for this question: This hand-drawn map (from the Londonist hand-drawn map exhibition) shows uncanny similarities between the placing of strategic landmarks in London and Paris. As soon as Pelgrane gets Dreamhounds of Paris out the door, I think some crossover will be in order

[GBSteve]

Maybe there will be some oeufs de Pâques but the cities are arranged very differently, they both have central rivers but, for example, people live in the middle of Paris.