Tuesday 6th January  13:43 pm Good Afternoon

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Nelson's Column October Final Resting Place for Young British Artists 14th October 2005 The End of a Sensational Era Sensation! The name said it all. The exhibition that turned oddball modern art into a mainstay of water-cooler conversation, and turned a generation of artists into front-page news: Damien's shark, Tracey's bed Jake and Dinos' scenes of torture and mutilation, and that hilarious thing with the kebab. And suddenly all of us trendy young journalists, publishers and socialites were picking our way through the puddles of Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney ('So daring! You know it's not even on the tube, darling') to turn our bemused, amused gazes on an art-world that only months before we hardly knew existed. And now, the final curtain is being drawn on the work of the single most important figure from that generation. The Saatchi Gallery is to close, and the great collector is to move his work to Chelsea, after a very nasty dispute with the owners of County Hall. Chelsea is not a place where exciting art is made or seen. Instead of East London’s young, multi-ethnic, 24-hour party people, the visitors will be Ladies Who Lunch, dropping by to pick out tasteful things to impress their friends at dinner parties. The galleries of Sloane Square and the King's Road are staffed by the languid daughters of the Home Counties' aristocracy, killing time before marriage, rather than the tattooed, angry young artists who took charge of Saatchi’s original gallery in Boundary Road. And Saatchi himself seems to have changed. Marriage to Nigella Lawson has mellowed him. He hopes to have a trendy restaurant in his new gallery, which would certainly go bankrupt if his exhibition included the stomach-churningly repulsive art of the Chapman brothers (whose new work has the lovely title 'Like a Dog Returning to its Vomit'). And while I could quite happily go through the rest of my life without ever encountering another of their monstrously perverted creations, the shock value was a huge part of what made Saatchi's shows so thrilling, and without it, the London art-world will be much diminished. There is one ray of hope: the court case that surrounded his move out of County Hall included allegations that he had attempted to throttle one of his landlord's representatives in a dispute over a disabled toilet. The passion isn't all gone from the man who used to have one of Damien Hirst's dead sheep in his hallway, and perhaps the new gallery will be a wake-up call to this sleepy part of town. Saddles Soar in the City Cycling in the capital has reached record highs, according to the latest figures revealed by mayor Ken Livingstone. Nearly 120,000 journeys are made each week on the capital's key roads, compared to 59,000 in 2000 making London the fastest growing cycling city in Europe, according to TfL's director of surface transport. New Rubens Discovered A previously unseen and only recently discovered drawing by Rubens forms the centrepiece of a new exhibition of the Flemish master’s work at the National Gallery. 'Rubens: A Master in the Making' outlines the first 15 years of the artist's career and also includes Massacre of the Innocents - one of his most famous works. Somerset House Seeks Out Snaps Somerset House - currently home to the Courtauld Gallery and a London outpost of St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum - has announced its ambition to become the home of a national museum of photography. Collections held at the Victoria and Albert and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, currently have relatively little space to display their works. December 2008 23rd December January is on the Horizon 20th December Merry Christmas November 2008 26th November All The World's A Stage 20th November Surviving the Crunch October 2008 24th October Boris v Jingjing 17th October Soaps in Pole Position September 2008 23rd September Chips too Chavvy for Chelsea 16th September The London Restaurant Awards August 2008 26th August No Smoking, No Ducks, No Barbecues 20th August The Olympics July 2008 24th July Sandwiched Out 17th July The Show Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Lady's on Page 3 June 2008 26th June Love All at Wimbledon 16th June Miller Puts the Heat on Tennant May 2008 27th May Booze Banned on Buses 20th May Same Again? April 2008 23rd April By George 11th April Back to the 80s March 2008 28th March How do You Solve A Problem Like Medea? 20th March Flight Fantastic February 2008 20th February Dark, Satanic Turnmills 6th February A Diamond in the Drink January 2008 21st January People Wanted for Plinth 14th January Boo! Hiss! December 2007 28th December Tate That - A Hirst for Art 20th December Christmas Shopping November 2007 27th November Mind the Gap 26th November London On A Tray October 2007 26th October Leaving the Station 14th October The Sky's the Limit September 2007 26th September The Play Within A Play 19th September Fashion, Frocks and Celeb Shocks 12th September Saying Tanks for the Mammaries August 2007 24th August Heathrow under Siege 17th August Gormless 10th August Losing Face July 2007 24th July Are We Reaching Boiling Point Yet This Summer? 13th July Red Ken versus Blonde Boris June 2007 22nd June Last Orders at the Fag Machine 11th June London the Musical May 2007 21st May What Lurks Beneath 10th May The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of April 2007 27th April London’s Walk on the Wild Side 20th April Stand Behind the Yellow Line 13th April Like Water for Chocolate March 2007 23rd March So, Another Magazine 16th March Avoiding iContact February 2007 23rd February Sex and Art... 16th February C-Charge Protest Fails to Bring Down Government 9th February Live Earth London January 2007 26th January A Vote for Shilpa is a Vote for Britain 18th January Carriage on up the West End December 2006 29th December Food for Thought 22nd December A Poisonous Marketing Campaign 15th December In for a Penny, In for Five Pounds November 2006 17th November Big Department Stores Leave Santa Out in the Cold 10th November Failing to Save the World October 2006 27th October Frozen Prawns and Melting Icecaps 20th October Predatory Pelicans and Happy Woodland Folk 13th October Hope at last for east end of Oxford Street September 2006 16th September Lite the Blue Paper and Stand Well Back 9th September Of Poles and Twiglets August 2006 25th August Free Fares For the Fat and the Fashionable 11th August London Friendly 4th August Archway To Organic Heaven July 2006 21st July London - Celebrity Frat House 7th July Out of the Galleries into the Streets June 2006 23rd June Mayors, Nightmares and Marias 16th June Downright Rude in Paris and London 9th June Enter the Inferno May 2006 26th May Curvaceous Border 12th May Vegging Out April 2006 21st April The Camden Crawl 17th April Down the Pan 13th April I Want to Break Free 9th April Big Brother seems to have been left in a bar somewhere 7th April Don't Box Me In March 2006 24th March Political Correctness Reaches New Heights February 2006 24th February A Stadium's Tale: Cup Final Goes West 17th February Modern Musicals are Rubbish 10th February The City-Side Alliance January 2006 20th January February Sales 20th January Moby Sick 13th January Glass Half Full 3rd January Three Cheers for the Tube Station Workers December 2005 22nd December January Bites 16th December A Remarkable Year November 2005 25th November And a Partridge in a JCB 11th November Driving Miss Sadie 4th November Spam, Spam, Spammity-Spam, Shakespeare, Zorro, Chico and Rasputin October 2005 28th October Trick or Treat? 21st October We Don't Mind a Little Delay... 14th October Final Resting Place for Young British Artists September 2005 16th September Just a small urn for me, please barman 9th September DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!