It expresses itself.”
In fact, there is every indication that Mr Jospin, and the French left generally, were upset by the timing of the declaration, just before the European elections. They are also alarmed, and a little puzzled, by the implication that the new German government feels more comfortable ideologically with Blairism than Jospinism.Mr Jospin’s right-of-centre domestic opponents have been making hay with the Blair-Schroder doctrine, claiming that it proves their thesis that French socialism is stuck in the age of tax-and-spend dinosaurs.Members of Mr Jospin’s pink-green-red coalition have condemned the British and German leaders. Dominique Voynet, leader of the French Greens, said it was a “stab in the back”. Both countries had signed up to a common, socialist platform for the European elections, which made no mention of the “third way”, she said They had no right to “betray” Mr Jospin at this time. The Communist leader, Robert Hue, also said the statement was a “serious blow” to the French Prime Minister.The French socialists insist that the scarcely veiled Anglo-German criticism could be put to electoral advantage. In the European Parliament campaign, they have been attacked by the Greens, Communists and ultra-left as being too “liberal”: it was useful to be accused of being too far to the left.Mr Jospin was more direct in a campaign speech on Wednesday night “Third way or new centre?” he asked.

“No! I prefer to follow our path, the path of the modern left .. of growth, social progress and modernity.”. FORMER PRESIDENT Ronald Reagan’s vision of a national missile defence system that could knock enemy missiles out of the sky came a stage closer yesterday after the US military successfully tested a crucial part of the “star wars” technology. The Pentagon said that the Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation and the US army had conducted a “successful intercept with a target by the Theater High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile” at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
In other words, it had successfully used a missile to destroy another missile, a technological capability crucial to a missile defence system.The successful test was the 10th of a 13-test series and followed six attempts in which the missile missed its target. This record prompted President Bill Clinton to order the military to review the multi-billion- dollar programme only last month.In the latest test, conducted at dawn yesterday, a Hera test rocket was intercepted in flight by another missile over the White Sands range. If the technology becomes reliable, the US will be able to destroy scud ballistic missiles such as those fired by Iraq during the Gulf War before they reach their intended targets.Earlier this year, President Clinton bowed to pressure from the Republican- controlled Congress to proceed with the missile defence programme, and committed more than $6bn (pounds 3.75bn) to a national missile defence programme. But thetest failures raised questions about the reliability of the system being developed by Lockheed Martin for the US Army.The last failed test, on 29 March, made the company liable to forfeit $15m under the terms of its Pentagon contract.. FOOTPRINTS RECORDING a boyish prank or dare performed more than 25,000 years ago have been discovered by scientists in an underground cavern in southern France.

BANKS AND building societies yesterday resisted pressure to cut mortgage interest rates by the full quarter point announced by the Bank of England’s Money Policy Committee. The Halifax said it would not drop its headline standard variable rate from 6.85 per cent, declining to comment on its plans for savings rates. Nationwide made no cut, saying only that it was reviewing its rates.
Abbey National dropped its standard variable rate mortgage by 0.1 per cent to 6.85 per cent from 1 July, promising that savings rates would not fall further than this.It is the second time in a row that most lenders have declined to pass on the Bank of England’s cut, depriving the average borrower of pounds 25 a month.However, a string of recently launched “direct” mortgage banks did follow the Bank’s cut. Norwich Union’s tracker mortgage, which promises to follow base rate cuts, dropped from 6.1 to 5.85 per cent Virgin Direct cut its rate by 0.25 points to 6.2 per cent. And Standard Life Bank cut its rate by 0.17 points to 5.88 per cent.Consumer groups and housing market experts said most banks were defending their profits at the expense of their customers.Mick McAteer, senior policy officer at the Consumers’ Association, said: “There is always this sting in the tail in interest rates and it highlights the need for a vibrant building society sector. The listed banks simply have to maintain their margins to keep their shareholders happy.”John Wrigglesworth, a housing market expert, warned that lenders would suffer a drop in income even if they kept mortgage and savings rates the same. The lower base rate meant they made less interest on their reserves.”Lenders are caught between the rock of bad publicity and the hard place of reduced income.

What I fear is that some banks may try to make up the loss by introducing fees and charges on their accounts,” Mr Wrigglesworth said.A spokesman for Abbey National insisted that the full cut could not be passed on because savings rates had to be maintained.”Deposit rates are getting to the point where you might as well stash your savings under the mattress,” the spokesman said.. AIRTOURS has vowed to press on with its attempt to persuade the European regulators to clear its pounds 852m bid for rival First Choice Holidays, even though it confirmed yesterday it would allow its bid to lapse. Airtours said it was still confident its deal would be cleared after the four-month investigation by Brussels, and that it would then be able to rebid.
However, it decided to lapse its bid as it had been unable to satisfy the European Commission that the takeover would not lead to an oligopoly in the UK package holiday market that could work against the public interest.Under Takeover Panel rules, Airtours is prevented from bidding for First Choice again within 12 months. But Airtours is hoping the Panel will consent to a change enabling Airtours to come back with another offer when the EU investigation is completed in October.In the meantime, First Choice has 21 days to persuade shareholders to support its preferred option of a pounds 1.5bn merger with Kuoni. Airtours said yesterday it had no intention of bidding for the combined Kuoni-First Choice if the merger goes through.One institutional shareholder in First Choice said: “We will do nothing until the Takeover Panel decision. We always said the Kuoni deal was fine, but the Airtours offer was better.” First Choice shares fell 24p to 181p, below the 188p value implied by the merger with Kuoni. Airtours shares dipped 2p to 517p.Mr Crossland expressed disappointment at the prospect of missing out on First Choice for a second time after failing with a bid in 1993 But he added: “This is a deal I would have liked to do.

In the dearth of understanding of the mechanisms of the mind and the brain, and the effects of their diseases, we still tackle their mysteries by aping early man: invoking divine intervention or taking shelter in simplistic dogmas.Popular books sustaining such myths overflow from the shelves We live in a very credulous world. Any right-minded alien visiting us would wonder whether there is intelligent life on earth. As with most domains of human knowledge, the various disciplines loosely lumped together as neurosciences are not exempt from personal beliefs, prejudices, faith, hopes, hunches, and ultimately myths.The neuroscience and psychology literature is the principal myth-maker. Nevertheless, the scientific tradition has embedded rules which decrease the chance of blunders existing for very long. The acceptance of these rules in accruing knowledge marks the difference between science and beliefs, between what we do know about the mind and the brain and what we think we know about them. Perhaps more important, accepting these rules allows us to admit what we do not yet know.Understanding how the brain functions through the methods of science can be a creative endeavour; unsubstantiated beliefs are tedious.Sergio Della Sala is the editor of `Mind Myths: exploring popular assumptions about the mind and the brain’ (Wiley, pounds 19.99).

11 June 1999 Regina v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions, ex parte Bath and North East Somerset District Council

Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Roch, Lord Justice Otton and Lord Justice Pill) 26 May 1999
THE SECRETARY of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions had jurisdiction to hear an appeal against the failure of a local planning authority to determine an application for planning permission or for listed building consent within the necessary time period, notwithstanding that the local authority had determined that the application was invalid.The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Bath and North East Somerset District Council against the dismissal of its application for judicial review of the decision of the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions to hold a public inquiry into the council’s failure to determine certain applications for planning and listed building consents.The council was the local planning authority for the City of Bath, which was a Unesco-designated World Heritage Site containing a 1,915 hectare conservation area and about 5,000 listed buildings.Applications for planning and listed building consents were made to the council by Ski Enterprises (UK) Ltd (“the company”) which involved internal and external alterations to a listed building and a material change of use. Considerable detail, by way of narrative and drawings, was supplied to the council in support of the proposal.The council wrote to the company stating that the documents which had been submitted were not adequate to enable them to consider the proposal, and that the applications could not be accepted or processed further until additional detailed information was provided. The company declined to provide the detail requested on the ground that until they knew whether the change of use was acceptable in principle, the detail could not sensibly be provided.The council then told the company that the applications had not been registered and would not be processed further until receipt of the details requested. The company appealed to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions, pursuant to section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and section 20 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, on the ground that the appellants had failed, within the appropriate period, to determine the applications.The Secretary of State fixed the time and date of an inquiry into the appeals.

The council applied by way of judicial review for an order prohibiting the Secretary of State from holding a public inquiry, on the ground that he had no jurisdiction to hear the appeals as the council had decided that the applications on which they were based were invalid, and it was the sole arbiter as to whether sufficient detail had been included with the applications.Meyric Lewis (Sharpe Pritchard) for the council; Alice Robinson (Treasury Solicitor) for the Secretary of State.Lord Justice Pill said that in the light of Geall v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and Regions (unreported, 11 December 1998), and upon a purposive construction of the statutes and a consideration of the statutory scheme as a whole, a right of appeal under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and section 20 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 arose even when the local planning authority had formed the view that the application which was the subject of the appeal was invalid.The words “which the local authority considers to be valid” should not be read into section 78 or section 20 to govern the word “application”. A determination of invalidity by the local authority did not exclude the right of appeal to the Secretary of State on the question of validity.The applications in the present case accordingly remained applications for the purpose of triggering the operation of the appeal provisions in the legislation notwithstanding the view of the council that the applications were invalid.. “TODAY I had a slapping walk.” One might think this a Bright Young Thing’s remark, not that of the cerebral poet Wallace Stevens when writing to his wife in 1912. The OED omits its survival in America this century, but notes the two 19th-century usages: large and fast. In each case, this refers to both men and horses, as does spanking, which goes back to the 17th century, possibly from spanke, Danish for strut.

Whether Stevens’s walk from Manhattan was long, brisk, or both, he enjoyed it, and thought of the poet Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles’ phrase: “J’ai le gout de l’azur”, although, eight years earlier, Stevens wrote, “God! What a thing blue is! It is one of the few things left that bring tears to my eyes (or almost) It pulls at the heart.”. EVEN BEFORE kick-off in Sofia on Wednesday night there were indications that it would not be all right on the night, notably the sight of Gareth Southgate, in full England kit, queuing for the public toilets, the dressing- room facilities being too grim for words. The same may apply to England’s fate come the autumn though, doubtless, the headline writers will find the words. The pall of despondency which fell over England at the final whistle will not have been improved upon being met on their return by headlines such as “Hopeless”, “On their knees”, “Second-raters” and “A load of Bul”.
It was a harsh reaction to what, in ordinary circumstances, would be regarded as a decent result, but it matched the mood of the team and coaching staff.

She stopped at a photograph of Albert Einstein with an inscription, and spoke with admiration of this wonderful man n. Kos or Kusadasi

Lunn Poly has seven nights in Kos on a room-only basis for pounds 265 per person based on two people sharing, departing Manchester on 7 August, and 14 nights in Kusadasi in Turkey for pounds 389 per person in the 3D-rated Barbados Apartments The flight departs Newcastle, 7 August. Available from 800 UK Lunn Poly shops.
DubaiFlightbookers (0171-757 2444) is offering five nights in Dubai for pounds 359 per person up to 14 August staying in a four-star resort.TunisiaAn offer from Panorama (01273 427777) which caught our eye is seven nights in Tunisia at the Hotel Cleopatra in Hammam-Sousse for pounds 359 per person half-board departing Birmingham on 8 August.The DordogneAnd if you fancy something a little different, Travelbag Adventures (01420 541007) has an eight-day “Dordogne a Pied” walking holiday for pounds 495 per person leaving on 7 August. Including return train travel from London, local transport (when not on foot), seven nights’ accommodation, some meals and a tour leader, the trip explores the pilgrimage town of Rocamadour and medieval Martel.IsraelImaginative Traveller (0181-742 8612) has reduced its eight-day “Israel Connection” tour starting on 11 August by pounds 70 to pounds 665 per person. The price includes return flights to Cairo on KLM from Heathrow (and regional UK airports), transport, seven nights’ accommodation, meals and a guide. Highlights include a walking tour of Jerusalem’s Old City, Nazareth, the port of Akko, and the Dead Sea.The eclipseIf you haven’t made plans for the eclipse yet, Voyages of Discovery (01293 433030) has slashed prices on its 11-night Eclipse Cruise to pounds 695 per person (originally pounds 1,740-pounds 1,970).

Leaving on 7 August, you’ll view the eclipse off the coast of Le Havre.All details and offers correct at time of going to press.. THE GREATEST moment of your life is either a dozen days or five months away, according to which camp in the travel industry you believe (personally, I would side with neither; an industry whose business is selling dreams is not one in which unswerving faith is likely to be rewarded). Depending on your circumstances, you may have thought that an event such as getting married, surviving a Cabinet reshuffle or your team winning the treble was of supreme significance. But the travel trade would like to persuade you otherwise.
The 12-day wonders think you should travel somewhere to observe the last total eclipse of the millennium, which takes place on 11 August.

I have been fortunate enough to witness a total eclipse, in India, and can confirm that to witness the light draining from a cloudless sky is a truly, er, cosmic experience worth travelling a long way to see.The significant word there is “cloudless”. There is still time to make plans for being in Romania, Turkey or Iran on 11 August. These are locations on the path of totality where the weather is likely to be fine enough for you to see the hole in the sky.Most of us, though, will stay closer to home, in the far south west of England or northern France. (Page 11 of next week’s travel section will preview the French options.) But do not be taken in by Ealing Council’s promotion: “Total Eclipse of the Park, a unique event to celebrate the solar eclipse from one of the most beautiful vantage points in London”. There will be no total eclipse in London, or anywhere in the UK apart from south-west Cornwall, south Devon and Alderney.Wherever you are on the day, if there should happen to be a break in the clouds, do not look directly at the sun. The eclipse glasses that are being sold for spectators along the line of totality are even more essential for people in the rest of Britain, who will be able to witness a partial eclipse (about as much fun, I imagine, as only partially surviving a Cabinet reshuffle). Deep in the retina there are no pain receptors to give an early warning, and infrared rays from the sun can cause permanent eye damage.

If you look at India or South Africa, the multiplicity of languages is preserved by having an international alternative language.”Should we remember what happened to Irish and Welsh, and treat this with scepticism? Or should we learn to stop worrying and love World English?Oddly enough, Dr Strangelove provides an insight into the current success of World English. After the end of the Cold War, the machinery by which English was promulgated for propaganda reasons began to run down The Voice of America mellowed, losing its lunatic edge. In turn, the forbidding radio stations of the East faded into silence. The excitingly stern announcer of Radio Tirana stopped telling the world in boastful phonetic English that the number of Albanians in higher education had risen to 1 per cent. And at the moment this battle ended, the new democracies of Eastern Europe embraced the English language with a voracious, goggle-eyed enthusiasm.As a beneficiary of this process, this is an issue upon which I find it difficult to take a detached stance. In 1990, without a single reference or teaching qualification, I managed to get a summers’ employment in a language school in Poznan, in north-west Poland. My pupils were the children of new capitalists, kids whose parents sent them to be schooled in the only commercial language that mattered.

In one class I taught the son of Poland’s largest lingerie manufacturer, placed there in the hope that he would, one day, be able to broker those girdle deals in perfect RP. In another, there was the son of a crisp magnate, whose completely inedible product – like hyperinflated Cheesey Wotsits without the cheese flavouring – would only gain a foothold in foreign markets if young Boleslaw (or whoever) could be trained to produce nibble hard-talk in the language of Shakespeare and Milton. This ethos was everywhere.As capitalism spread through Eastern Europe, World English continued to grow, boosted by the Anglophone nature of the Internet. Business conducted in the English language began to produce $7,815bn annually The number of people learning English topped a billion. So for Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates and me, the good times rolled. When I was doing postgraduate study at university, I supplemented my British Academy funding with two World English-related jobs.

The first involved teaching English to the children of Russian mafiosi in a wood-panelled crammer college. The second found me compiling articles for the Encarta CD-Rom Encyclopaedia. I did Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, WB Yeats, Dylan Thomas, DH Lawrence, HG Wells, and a handful of others. Without World English, Microsoft and the odd Muscovite Mr Big, I wouldn’t have got through college.According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, World English is “the English language in all its varieties as it is spoken and written over the world” The nearest comparison comes from the Ancient World. During the period of the Roman Empire, Latin was the language of administration, government, literature and scholarship in Europe, Asia and Africa.

We did everything ourselves, with friends and decided to do all our buying in England because we were unable to find what we wanted locally.”And relaxing when she arrived was out of the question: “We had to knuckle down and get on with it. But it has been worth it, particularly as we often manage to pop over for weekends.”There is a tendency for British- renovated houses to find a market only with their countrymen. The gentrification of rural properties has had little appeal for French buyers who are not generally prepared to pay a price that reflects years of work.However, Maurice Lazarus of the London-based Domus Abroad, which specialises in selling British-owned properties in France, has noticed a new interest in the countryside. French buyers, he is finding, are increasingly fed up with the pollution and congestion in the cities but don’t want to renovate a house themselves.Certainly Germans, Dutch and Scandinavian buyers actively look for British- owned houses.

“They know that there will be a good ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms and that the work will be to a high standard,” says Mr Lazarus. “The French are not particularly worried about having just one bathroom in a corner near the kitchen.”Indeed, Rosie Bellingham finds that her French neighbours think it quite bizarre that she has three bathrooms But not so if a property is to be let. “Holidaymakers expect far higher standards than they used to at one time,” says Maurice Lazarus. “The gite with its rudimentary plumbing is no longer acceptable.”When it comes to cost it is important not to pour money into a property that you will never get back and Domus does not have wrecks on its books. “It is easy to spend pounds 30,000 on a pounds 15,000 house and then find the area cannot support a pounds 45,000 property,” says Mr Lazarus, who has noticed prices hardening.”Pets being allowed to travel will make an enormous difference.”Domus Abroad, 0171-431 4692BUYING IN FRANCEProperty: property transactions must be dealt with by a notary, who is more than a lawyer He or she acts for both sides The buyer pays notary fees which are about 9 per cent.

That includes taxes.Language: if you cannot read French, you are advised to find a fluent speaker or a solicitor in the UK who is experienced in Anglo-French transactions.Surveys: not the way in France, but buyers should seek an opinion from someone who is qualified to comment, such as a builder friend or a local recommended builder.Location: a rural property in a bad position will never become more valuable by pumping money into it.Management: if property is to be left for long periods consult the agent. A formal agreement would be better, at least until a close personal relationship is established with neighbours. If it is to be let you will need someone reliable close at hand.Inheritance: French property inheritance laws mean that owners should seek advice from lawyers either in the UK or France.Investment: country property is not a good investment in France. Buy to live in, for holidays and for fun, but not to make money.. I WAS 19 and setting off on my first solo trip abroad.

Inger, my Swedish penfriend, had been to stay with me in Huddersfield and now, in return, she had invited me back to Sweden. My itinerary was to be a few days in Stockholm, a short trip to Malmberget above the Arctic Circle, and then back to Inger’s home in Strangnas, west of Stockholm. One of the main things on my mind as I packed was what to wear – such an important thing for a teenager. Not trousers, as I’d have chosen now, but a neat, light-blue, linen suit with navy-blue court shoes and a bag – possibly even cotton gloves

What an impact Scandinavia was about to make. It is still easy to recall because it made such vivid impressions on my senses. Not many of smells though – certainly not in the toilets, where there were dispensers of anti-bacterial wet-wipes for the loo seat (unheard of in the parts of Britain I’d frequented) – just of sunshine and vegetation and tastebud- tempting meatballs.
There were so many new tastes: compotes of berry fruits, smorgasbords stuffed with treats – fantastic pickles and roll-mop herrings, novel breads and crispbreads – and breakfasts filled with strange new flavours – yogurt (not so common in Britain then) served with cornflakes and, less temptingly, porridge made with rice.As to sounds, I remember birdsong, bits of conversations – notably a hunky friend of Inger’s telling me, “You look beautiful when you smile” – and the train rushing along, carrying me to the far north.

A mill that has been converted to a Dettol factory and then, more recently, into a set of spiffing apartments, is a little more unusual, however. Admission is pounds 2 adult, pounds 1 child or pounds 5.50 for a family ticket. In some parts of the Yorkshire countryside, it never seems long before a box-shaped, one-time mill looms into view. The garden and park are open daily from 11am-4pm during Jan-March and October-Dec and 10am-5pm from April-Sept. Admission to the castle, garden and park is free for National Trust members, otherwise pounds 5.20 for adults, pounds 2.70 for children or pounds 13.40 for a family ticket (two adults, three children).The Water Mill (01643 821759) is open from 10.30-5pm every day except Saturday from April to October, except July-August, when it opens on Saturdays too. The castle (01643 821314) is open from 30 March-1 November, everyday except Thursday and Friday.

When you stand and listen to the winnowing machine creaking and grinding and the soporific clanking of iron on iron, it takes almost all the imagination you have left to believe that the mill is powered merely by water.Dunster is just off the A39 near Minehead in Somerset. After a day out, admiring the castle and its ghosts and walking off cream teas in town, you are brought back down to earth with a bang and a thump and a clatter with the hefty old machinery at work in the mill. Much more recent are the newly established town gardens, imaginatively planted for adults, but with plenty of grass for the kids to romp around on.A lovely stroll away, whether ambling through the village streets and along the riverside, or approached briskly from the castle, is the town’s water mill. The site it now stands on was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but the present mill dates only from the 18th century.In 1979 it was brought back from the brink of dereliction by the Capp family, and these days the family operates the mill once more as a business, producing the wholewheat stoneground flour that is sold in the adjoining shop.Upstairs is a fascinating collection of old agricultural machinery with nostalgic names like bitter churn, cake crusher, oat roller and horse-drawn sham, but down below is where the action takes place. Here, the houses of once-affluent wool merchants dominate the high street and contrast sharply with the more humble medieval cottages in West Street that once housed the woollen workers.Like a strange spaceship bandstand, the circular yarn market that was built by one of the Luttrells in 1609 to sell Dunster cloth hovers at one end of the high street. Headed by stone plaques, each one bears the name of a well- loved family dog – or a solitary budgerigar.In the other direction, the gardens lead straight into the village, its streets merging seamlessly into the castle grounds.

Louis of Bavaria had linked his father’s death to an eclipse, and when he saw one happen himself, he predicted his own death – sure enough, he died one month later.7. Cornwall, 11 August 1999The last total solar eclipse of this millennium will be visible from the southwest of England. Cornwall is battening down the hatches in anticipation of the arrival of anything up to four million eclipse fanatics. They might be disappointed – Nasa scientists predict that the chances of clear skies on the day are 45 per cent.8. Jajai, India, 24 October 1995This recent solar eclipse proved that astronomical superstition is far from dead. People living in the village of Jajai smeared pregnant women and cows with red sand, hoping to avert any birth defects which they believed could be linked to an eclipse.9.

Jedburgh, Scotland, 15 May 1836English astronomer Francis Baily discovered what are now known as Baily’s beads. Just as the Sun reappears from behind the Moon after a total eclipse, sunlight shines between the lunar mountains, breaking the light up into small shining “beads”.10. Sobral, Brazil, and Principe Island, West Africa, 29 May 1919The eclipse that sealed Albert Einstein’s fame. Scientists went to Brazil and Africa to test his general theory of relativity – which predicts that the gravity of the Sun should bend the light from stars which are near to it – as viewed from the Earth. Normally these stars would not be visible because of the Sun’s brightness, but in an eclipse they are, and the gravitational effect of the Sun on the stars can be observed Einstein passed with flying colours.. In 1990, the building around Concert Square was a derelict warehouse in a run-down area of Liverpool It was about to be turned into a car park. Built around 1910 for a pharmaceuticals company, by the Fifties and Sixties the building was owned by confectionery wholesalers, supplying corner shops with Kit-Kats and Mars bars.

In the Seventies and Eighties the building had become a wholesale outlet for beer, before shutting down and falling into disrepair. Property developers Urban Splash rescued the building from demolition with a vision of how to transform it. Jonathan Falkingham and Tom Bloxham, the two directors, thought they would enjoy loft living in the city centre, and that other people would too. Estate agents told them there would be no demand, but Urban Splash sold all the apartments before renovation work had even begun. Lower floors were rented out to bars, galleries and restaurants.
Concert Square Building, redesigned by Shed architects, was completed in 1995.

It has transformed the area from a place that was out of bounds at night, to the most exciting and lively part of Liverpool – the equivalent of Temple Bar in Dublin or Soho in London.Who’s in your house?If you are a group of people who live, or work, separately but within the same building and would like to be featured on this page, write to Who’s in the House?, The Independent Magazine, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL, giving a contact phone number, your address, and details of the type of building you occupy. Please also include recent photographs (which you do not want returned) of your homes or offices.107.6 Crash FM radio stationOpened: March 1998Charlie C, DJ for ‘Charlie’s Jam’, on Sunday nightsCrash FM chose to locate in the centre of Liverpool, five minutes down the road from the superclub Cream. It has an alternative music policy, covering house, garage, soul, funk and indie, with not too many big chart hits. The station has a large, open-plan office and broadcasts live from two studios Charlie C has been with Crash from the beginning. He plays R&B, hip hop and swing and, he believes that, “Liverpool is the music capital of the world.”Beluga barOpened: November 1995Julie and Mary StephensonWhen sisters Julie and Mary Stephenson took on the basement of Concert Square it was filled with water and had no gas or electricity.

Says Anne: “We like musicals and concerts, we don’t normally go in for serious drama.” John says: “That goes for me too.”Emma Barnsley (19) and her sister Caroline (18)Emma has come from Lytham, near Blackpool, with her family to receive her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. They’re still arguing whether to see West Side Story or Starlight Express “We’ve been to musicals quite a few times,” says Emma “Phantom was my favourite. It was so dramatic.”Phil Owen (34)Phil is a chartered surveyor who works nearby and goes to the theatre in London about once every two months The last play he saw was Art. Today, he’s trying to get tickets for David Hare’s Plenty, starring Cate Blanchett. “It’s the last week of the play, so that’s why I’m here,” he says n. hen architect Frank Gehry hits town, the place is never the same again Not only does the skyline change.

Fame and fortune follow in his slipstream, even in nowheresville Take Weil-am-Rhein near the Swiss border in Germany. His chair museum next to the Vitra chair factory pulls four architectural tour parties every day, 10 years after it opened. Or Bilbao, where Gehry turned a down-at-heel town into an international destination. More curvaceous than a supermodel and taking as many photocalls, the Guggenheim, sculpted in tensile titanium, made Frank Gehry a household name, even in Britain where we have been slow to recognise his pulling power. Not for want of trying, on Gehry’s part – he is still grouchy about losing the commission to design a millennium bridge over the Thames to Norman Foster, and the new Tate Gallery at Bankside to the Swiss duo of Herzog & de Meuron. Now the architect who can command silly money for his signature on a building has waived his fees to design his first in Britain, a small, low-budget cancer care centre in Dundee, in honour of his friend, Maggie Keswick Jencks, who died of cancer in 1996.

The first Maggie’s Centre cancer care unit, by architect Richard Murphy, opened in Edinburgh in 1997, inspired by her vision of better quality care and support for patients and their families as they dealt with the disease. Neither hospice nor hospital, these centres are designed to complement orthodox treatments – symbolised in Dundee by a Gehry bridge over a man-made lake, linking the Maggie’s Centre to Ninewells Hospital.
At the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre (also designed by Murphy), sketches and models of the cancer centre are on show, along with profiles of other Gehry landmarks. Gehry’s first sketches for his buildings are deceptively like doodles. He then likes to flesh out his ideas with building blocks – the legacy of a childhood spent playing with them on his grandmother’s verandah in Toronto. Sketches become piles of blocks which are stacked, skewed, split and coloured on tracing-paper sites. Then his studio assembles models, which constantly change size, in paper and cellophane, or in spiralling balsa wood These models are tools, not iconic objects Finally they are transferred to a computer. Bits of chain-mail, perforated wire mesh and titanium lying about the exhibition illustrate Gehry’s fascination with finding the right membrane to contain his genius.’Frank O Gehry: The Architect’s Studio’ is at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, 152 Nethergate, Dundee, until 29 AugustMaggie’s Centre, DundeeThe Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in Dundee will be built next year.