As part of our university visits, this morning we walked around Bloomsbury and the various buildings belonging to University College – in effect, we had gone from one University College to another. This was once my stamping ground. As a teenager I would get the train up to Euston and then walk through Bloomsbury on my way to the British Museum, a trip always finished off with a visit to Maskelyne’s magic shop opposite the museum (alas, the shop is no more), where I would buy ‘cheap tricks’. Later, my then girlfriend went to UCL and the Jeremy Bentham became my local (pub). I have always been enchanted by the atmosphere of this part of London, a mixture of learning and culture. N° 1 sprog is studying philosophy and has been getting to grips with utilitarianism, so I took her to meet the real Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, who now resides in a glass-fronted wooden cabinet at the entrance to UCL’s main building – all of him, that is, apart from his mummified head, which now resides in the University’s safe.