This article interrogates the role of retrieval practices in an urban, multicultural London classroom. With the advent of cognitive science-based approaches in recent years, retrieval has become a central tenet for testing foundational knowledge in English literature. I consider the implications of retrieval for classroom discourses concerning feeling, experience and aesthetics. I ask whether it is possible to conceptualise 'retrieval' differently to encompass the funds of knowledge offered by our students and contexts that lie beyond the classroom.