For me, as a boy, an escape from leafy suburbia was the 74 bus route from Putney Heath to the South Kensington museums in Brompton. There, at choice, lay undiscovered worlds of the applied arts, natural history, science and geology and, in those days, the Empire collections of the Imperial Institute. But, in addition, lay the enticing attraction of the Brompton Oratory. Outside St Joseph’s Hall, stood one of the most compelling pieces of public sculpture in London: Thomas Garner’s Classical, shell-headed monument of Portland stone to John Henry, Cardinal Newman. It was carved by L J Chaualliaud, a French portrait sculptor working for Farmer & Brindley, and erected in 1896, six years after Newman’s death. Seen from the top deck of a bus, one gazed into Newman’s far-seeing eyes, deeply set in a sensitive head, given definition by London soot. From the moment I saw it I wanted to know more about this poetic-looking, cassock-clad priest with fine features.