Wednesday 20th August  17:53 pm Good Afternoon

on today on tomorrow other dates...

Nelson's Column May What Lurks Beneath 21st May 2007 Surprising what you can dig up under London It was recently revealed that a skeleton found under St-Martin-Fields, just off Trafalgar Square, has prompted a re-think of London's history. This discovery has got the men with mud under the nails quite excited and historians reaching for their books for a re-draft. The old church has got the builders in as part of a £36 million facelift. The workmen, digging down, uncovered an old looking box and, to their surprise, found a headless skeleton inside with a few fingers missing. This sort of discovery is fascinating for people who like to study things that have been buried for a long time. The sort of people who take a metal detector out on Salisbury Plain on the weekends - for fun. For them, this is like finding a bar of gold. After 1,500 years under ground, the box of old bones is said to reveal new and previously unknown information about our city. The discovery of the dead man, thought to be a wealthy Roman, has revealed that Romans remained in London longer than previously thought. Not, it has to be said, by much. The discovery places Romans in London a mere 10 years longer than was previously thought. But, if you look at our most recent decade – under the leadership of Mr Blair – you quickly realise a lot can happen in 10 years. When you’re dealing with history, every little thing you can dig up helps and this find certainly narrows the gap on what happened to the city after the Romans left and before the Saxons arrived. Even with this significant discovery there's still 190 years we're not really sure about – it's like working with a jigsaw puzzle with more than half the pieces missing. People who've studied this in far more depth than I’ll ever get around to say the city was in decline and went to ruin between 410 and 600 AD. No wonder they're so excited about this finding at St Martin's. The skeleton wasn't the only thing that was unearthed, another grave or two, pots and jewellery were discovered helping them piece together what was going during this sketchy time. It's fascinating stuff. I often think what would an archaeologist in thousands of years' time make of how we live today. Instead of the remains of a grain-like breakfast in our stomachs they'll find the remnants of a Burger King – because we all know the toxins in those things will never break down. Where today we dig up jewellery and pottery fragments they'll be discovering iPods and computer chips. And instead of living in caves and castles they'll realise we lived in concrete bunkers (if nuclear fears are realised) or high rises made up of cells stacked on top of each other. If the archaeologists of tomorrow really hit the jackpot they might find the great burial sites of the early 21st century (currently known as land fill sites), filled with plastic bags and naturally though incorrectly deduce that we co-habited, apparently quite amicably, with another species quite different from ourselves and made entirely of plastic. The Roman skeleton and other findings will be on display at the Museum of London (London Wall, EC2Y 5HN) until 8th August 2007. Opening times: Mon to Sat 10:00 - 17:30, Sun 12:00 - 17:30. Admission free. Spending a Few Pennies More parking bays have been provided for our very own cabbies so they can relieve themselves in private. Since realising that taxi drivers often wee in alleyways and side streets because they simply can’t find a place to stop (not in London surely?), Westminster City Council has upped the quota and strategically placed spaces (for 20p) near public loos. I wonder how many council meetings that took. How to Drive the Housemates Mad Those crazy kids at Channel 4 just don’t know what to do next to keep ‘Big Brother’ addictive. Seven long summers of the diary room and bonkers housemates (that’s not even mentioning the celebs) have gone by and as the eighth series approaches the powers-that-be are putting the bath in the living room and the fridge in the garden. People, no doubt, will be hooked. All in the Name of Art Should we not be proud of our emerging talent in the world of art? At the Royal College of Art Sculpture Show there were such offerings as a ‘torture chamber’ steel bed, a room full of domestic debris and a nine foot structure made out of 2,000 casts of human bones. This last one looked like a giant morbid wedding cake – not sure if that was deliberate but it’s probably all to do with interpretation. 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! 2nd September The Free Tenor August 2005 30th August Samba Rhythms Breaking Out All Over The Stadium 20th August Getting Behind the Iron Farce 10th August Mystery Play is No Sell Out July 2005 29th July Moving On From 7/7 22nd July Get loaded in the park 15th July Victoire!! June 2005 24th June New Balls, Please 17th June The End of an Unsightly Era 10th June