The European Literary Map of London continues its tour across Europe

Through a partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, brokered by Head of Policy and Partnerships Lucy Shackleton, the European Literary Map of London continues its tour across Europe, showcasing London as a crossroads of European literary heritage. The display made its first stop of 2025 at a UCL Alumni reception in Stockholm, engaging UCL alumni in Sweden and highlighting shared cultural connections. The exhibition has also travelled to Spain, where British Ambassador Alex Ellis inaugurated its display at Seville’s Hay Festival Forum. In Santiago de Compostela, audiences explored Galician works by writers like Marilar Aleixandre, Xesús Fraga, and Eva Moreda. With the support of El Corte Inglés, the Spanish leg continues in Valencia and Madrid, inviting visitors to engage with over 100 texts in 25+ languages—from Polish poetry to Italian letters—on the online map.

This weekend, the European Literary Map will also pop up at the Passa Porta Festival, the largest multilingual literary festival in Benelux. On 29 March, European Institute Director Dr Uta Staiger will moderate a conversation between authors David Nicholls (One Day) and Peter Terrin (De bewaker) exploring how place and narrative shape one another.

What is the city and how do we map it? Its multiplicities, polyphony and chaos? Not in cartographic terms, from above, but from the ground up – walking it, thinking it, writing it? Like the many European writers, artists, philosophers who came to London over the centuries and wrote about it, who wrote themselves into the city’s memory and who, in return, were shaped (written upon?) by the city. Who makes the city? Uta Staiger, Director of the UCL European Institute, critically and playfully maps an answer to these questions here.

These exciting stops mark just the beginning of the Lost & Found exhibition’s European journey, creating new dialogues on art and culture, belonging, and the city. Keep an eye out for future locations as the European Literary Map of London continues to explore how Europe’s writers have found and lost themselves in the streets of London.

For more information on the European Literary Map of London, visit the webpage, follow us on social media, and view the map. If you want to share your ideas and contribute an entry to the map, you can submit your thoughts here.