Passenger rail travel is 200 years old this month, and it all started here in London. Richard Trevithick (there he is, below) set up a circular demonstration railway where UCL’s campus now stands.

The ‘Catch Me Who Can’ ran on a circular track at an eminently catchable 12 mph. Here we see it pulling a passenger carriage while Londoners queue to ride the wonder of the age. Some would live to see construction of the great London termini just north of here. But, from the picture, only the hills of Hampstead and Highgate are still around to witness the Catch Me who Can’s successors pulling into St Pancras International.

The site is marked today by a plaque in Gower Street (below), and a temporary exhibition of innovative ideas inspired by this transport milestone can be viewed in UCL cloisters until tomorrow.