Old Indian Institute

Opened in 1886, the Indian Institute - which I cycle past whenever I go into town - opened with the aim of "making Englishmen, and even Indians themselves, appreciate better than they have done before the languages, literature and industries of India" - which I think translates as training Indian civil servants.

It's an impressive building, made of Milton stone 'in the style of the English Renaissance, with some Oriental details' to the designs of Basil Champneys.

But not everyone appreciated it: even the late, great John Betjeman dismissed it in 1938 as an “everlasting yellow building”, and thirty years later the University unceremoniously evicted the Indian Institute, without compensation.

What history makes of that decision is interesting - especially as those writing it will have done so from within the same building, as it became the University's History faculty.

Still, its original use is still reflected in its weathercock - who can't love the elephant with 'howdah' carriage?