it was renamed the Jeremy Bentham Room (sometimes abbreviated JBR) in tribute. Bentham's body is on public display at UCL in a wooden cabinet, at the end of the South Cloisters of the UCL Main Building; he had directed in his will that he wanted his body to be preserved as a lasting memorial to the university. This 'Auto-Icon' has become famous. Unfortunately, when it came to his head, the preservation process went disastrously wrong and left it badly disfigured. A wax head was made to replace it; the actual head is now kept in the college vaults. Construction of the Main Building In 1827, a year after the founding of UCL, construction of the Main Building began on the site of the proposed Carmarthen Square (at the time wasteland, used occasionally for duelling or dumping). Eight acres of ground were purchased for £30,000 by Goldsmid, John Smith and Benjamin Shaw. 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 centerpiece 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 stymied for want of funding, and work on the main building was not completed until the 20th century, (after the building itself had suffered damage during World War II). The Main Building was finally finished in 1985, 158 years after the foundations were laid, with a formal opening ceremony by Queen Elizabeth II. Milestones UCL claims to be the first higher education institution in England to accept students of any race, class or religion, although there are records of at least one mixed-race student from Jamaica entering Oxford in 1799. More recent publications have revised the claim to drop the mention of race. UCL also claims to have been the first to accept women on equal terms with men, in 1878. However, the University of Bristol also makes this claim, University College Bristol having admitted women from its foundation in 1876. The College of Physical Sciences in Newcastle, a predecessor institution of Newcastle University, also admitted women from its foundation, in 1871. At UCL, women were only admitted to Arts, Law and Science in 1878