Everybody remembers Shakespeare. But few Londoners have even noticed that there is a statue of him in the middle of Leicester Square.
He stares poetically at the doors of discotheque - with a cinema to his right and another behind him. Scholars are dismayed. But Shakespeare himself would certainly approve. His great poetry rose out of the popular culture of his day. And some say that if he were alive today he would probably be making films, or writing pop songs.
You can't help noticing Nelson's Column. It is one of the landmarks of London. In 1849, just before the statue of the famous admiral was hoisted into position, the directors of building company celebrated the completion of the immense column byhaving lunch at the top of it.
The philosopher, Jeremy Bentham (died 1832) coined the phrase "The greatest happiness of the greast number". He has no statue. Instead, his skeleton sits in the corridor of University Colloge, London wearing some of his old clothes. An appropriate memorial to a Utilitarian.
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