History
In 1827, a year after the founding of UCL, construction of the Main Building began on the site of the old Carmarthen Square. The Octagon Building is a term used for the whole of the Main Building, but more appropriately for a central part of it. At the centrepiece of the building is an ornate dome, which is visible throughout the immediate area. The Octagon was designed by the Architect William Wilkins, who also designed the National Gallery. The original plans by Wilkins called for a U shaped enclosure around the Quad (square). These plans however were not completed until the 20th century. The Main Building was finally finished in 1985, 158 years since the foundations were laid, with a formal opening ceremony by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: UCL Main Building
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“I am not a literary man.... I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.”
—J.A.H. (James Augustus Henry)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
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Do get done in this way, but never the things
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—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)