Central Oxford never really bothered me, though I was slightly bubbled and certainly paying little attention to the local news as an undergraduate (unless it was a big enough story to make the student rags).

I was a bit surprised one time I'd been in someone's room at Lincoln until about 3am and he asked whether I was OK walking back to college (yeah, Merton's a whole five minute's walk away!) I was the victim of petty crime (some bastard nicked my wallet), but that instilled less a sense of fear than a sense of it being wise to lock my door when going for a shower.

Blackbird Leys, of course, had a certain notoriety. I didn't go near it until the summer of 1996, when I cycled past the end of one of the roads into the estate and someone lobbed a brick at the car in front of me. This biassed my opinion a little until imc convinced me it wasn't so bad. Eventually I ended up living in the area for 3.5 years. Granted, the walk home from the bus stop took me past the site of a murder, one or two well-known drug-dealer haunts, numerous irritating kids and so on, it never particularly bothered me. Frankly I worried more about impatient bus-drivers on my tail while cycling up the narrower sections of Cowley Road.