The Covid-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions have highlighted revived demand in armchair travelling and a re-exploration of the urban environment. This article argues that reading urban fantasy literature as a special case of armchair travelling provides valuable insights into contemporary real-world spatial practices and socio-political discourses. By introducing supernatural elements to the mundane environment, urban fantasy frequently achieves a de-familiarising effect. It marks a significant shift in armchair travelling, as it moves the destination from exotic and idyllic far-flung places to well-known, grittier urban locations and can thus contribute to a re-enchantment with the contemporary metropolis. Whereas pre-existing definitions of urban fantasy stress the texts’ inside perspective on the city, this article analyses travel and displacement in China Miéville’s The City and the City to reveal a juxtaposition of inside and outside perspectives on the urban setting. It thus calls for a more nuanced definition of urban fantasy that accounts for this duality.

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