London is the capital of England and The United Kingdom and it also appears multiple times throughout Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Robert Walton is a traveler, and he likely begins his journey starting from London as he mentions at the beginning of the novel that he is “already far north of London” as he is in St. Petersburg at the time of writing the first letter we see in the novel. Towards the middle of the book, Victor Frankenstein and his friend Henry Clerval take a sight-seeing journey where they visit all sorts of cities. This pleases Henry Clerval greatly as he enjoys every minute of the trip with his friend, but Frankenstein is tense and depressed due to his creation's desire of wanting a female counterpart. London is a place in which the two friends stop to rest for a while where Frankenstein contemplates how to create another monster to satisfy his creation. There’s no question as to why London would make an appearance in Mary Shelley’s novel as it was the biggest city in the world as of 1815. London was a very wealthy city, but due to its large population, there were struggles regarding poverty. Many people had to search for employment and even children had to work in order to support their families. It was also hard to afford a house near work locations, so people crowded in slums together. London was likely relevant in Frankenstein simply due to the fact that it was the capital of England and was the biggest city at the time in which Shelley was writing the novel. Despite the horrible conditions for the working class, it still had many things to see that would interest the characters that visit the city. To Frankenstein and Clerval, it was likely a "must-see" on their travels and Clerval especially found pleasure in admiring his surroundings in all of the cities he visited. 

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones, 1818.

Hitchcock, Tom. “London, 1815-1913.” Old Bailey Online. https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/london-life19th.

Williams, Bob. London-Tower Bridge. Public Domain Pictures, https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=191365&pict....

Daniels, Barbara. “Poverty and Families in the Victorian Era.” Hidden Lives, March, 2003. https://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/articles/poverty.html.