A new wing at the National Portrait Gallery, which traces British history from Tudors to the Rolling Stones, has been unveiled by the Queen.
The extension to the gallery, in Trafalgar Square, London, cost £16m.
Visitors arriving at the gallery are carried by the UK's biggest overground escalator to the start of the display, to see the oldest portraits, painted around 500 ago.
Declaring the gallery extension open, the Queen said she was pleased that the new Tudor Gallery had been created to display portraits of her predecessors, including the "Ditchley" painting of Queen Elizabeth I.
More recent sitters include Lady Thatcher, Arthur Scargill, Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson.
A portrait of The Rolling Stones is among the works which bring the exhibition up-to-date.
Visitors will also find better facilities, an information technology gallery with 10 touch-sensitive screens, a lecture theatre and rooftop restaurant.
The new wing has been named after Sri Lankan-born benefactor Christopher Ondaatje, who contributed more than £2.5m towards the cost.
The project also received nearly £12m in lottery funding.
The gallery is the largest of its kind in the world, and even before the new wing was added was attracting around one million visitors a year.
The new wing was built on a former service yard belonging to the neighbouring National Gallery, and in return, the National has extended along Trafalgar Square.
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Queen to open bridge that no one can cross(Electronic Telegraph)
By Nigel Reynolds
THE Millennium Bridge - the first Thames crossing built in central London for 30 years - will have to hide its blushes next Tuesday when the Queen arrives to "open" it, because she is at least a month too early.
Instead of a bracing stroll on a graceful steel walkway funded by the National Lottery, the Queen will have to be content with a service of dedication in St Paul's Cathedral and a few words of optimism standing on the north bank gazing over the half-completed bridge. One insider admits: "It is a bit of an embarrassment."
The elegant bridge, designed by the architect Lord Foster and the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, will become one of the new "wonders" of London. Four of Sir Anthony's sculptures will form a dramatic gate on the north bank. It is believed to be the first pedestrian-only bridge over the river in central London. And, depending how you regard it, it is the first new Thames bridge since either 1894 (when Tower Bridge was completed) or 1972 (when the most recent London Bridge was opened).
But the Millennium Bridge was originally due to open to pedestrians last month after costing £15.9 million. It will not now be ready to open to the public until June 10, with costs having risen by £3 million. The Millennium Bridge Trust, the body behind the project, says it is not at all embarrassed. A spokesman said yesterday that it had become clear a year ago that time was slipping by, next Tuesday was the only date the Queen could manage, and it had long been apparent that the Queen would only be able to "dedicate" it.
Insiders on the project insist, however, that until recently it had been hoped that the Queen might be able to walk at least halfway across. But extra work and a strike in a Finnish factory making steel components mean that even this will not be possible. The bridge will link St Paul's Cathedral on the north bank to the spectacular new £134 million Tate Modern art gallery, created from a disused power station in Southwark, on the south bank.
The gallery is on time and on budget and the Queen can return to the area on Thursday confident that it is ready for a proper opening. The Millennium Commission, which put up £7.9 million of lottery money for the bridge, said yesterday that it expected a further application for funds from the bridge trust because of the extra costs.
A spokesman said the application would be carefully scrutinised but added that the commission was not worried by the delays. "A month or two is not very long. The average commercial building project is 14 weeks late and, given how long the bridge will stand, it is probably more important to get it right than to hurry it."
The delays, says the trust, are not due to technical difficulties but to changes made after the project was approved. These include expensive stonework to protect the banks demanded by the Environment Agency, the costs of an archaeological dig and improvements to access after local people were consulted.
The Millennium Dome enjoyed its best month so far in April, attracting 579,333 visitors. The total included 32,676 free school visits and beat the previous best monthly figure, in February, when 569,538 people attended, including 63,755 on free school visits.
May also started well, with a record attendance of 32,192 on May 1. But the Dome will have to attract around one million visitors in each month for the rest of the year if organisers are to reach their break-even figure of 10 million admission-paying tourists.
A Mori poll of 1,009 visitors to the Dome between April 1 and April 19 showed that 84 per cent were satisfied with their visit, while 70 per cent judged the Dome to be "good value" and almost 80 per cent said they would recommend a visit to friends and family. Only 13 per cent said that there were too many queues, compared with 28 per cent who held this view in a similar poll in January.
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Yorks do not rule out remarriage(Electronic Telegraph)
By Robert Hardman
THE Duke of York says he would not rule out the possibility of remarriage to the Duchess and is determined that he and the Duchess will never again "make a nonsense" of their friendship.
In a wide-ranging interview, the Duke shrugs off speculation about his friendships with an assortment of international beauties and says his main priority in life is to give his daughters "unconditional love, honesty, consistency and discipline" as well as stability.
The Duke and Duchess's decision to live together as 40-year-old divorcees at their Sunninghill home has led to repeated speculation that they may seek a formal reconciliation. This is the first time that the Duke has addressed the issue directly.
"I don't rule remarriage out and I certainly don't rule it in," he tells the June issue of Tatler magazine. "If ever the opportunity arose, I do not know what I would do as it is not in the plan. The fact is that we got married and had a wonderful time but it did not work out, for whatever reason."
The Duchess refuses to dismiss the idea either although she is believed to be less keen on the thought of remarriage than the Duke.In the same interview, she says: "There has been no discussion on remarriage or reconciliation or any other such word. I am one of those people who feel very lucky to get to the end of the week. I simply say, if it should happen, great. It is not in nor is it ruled out."
Elsewhere, she says: "The word unity is what it is about. It was circumstances that drew us apart. The love is still very much there. Just in a different form. Our situation at Sunninghill is quite extraordinary and very original. A lot of people in this country judge us as being totally out of the norm and that is okay."
While the Duchess has often discussed the breakdown of her marriage in public, the Duke has always been more reticent. In this interview - given to to promote his £250 million fundraising campaign for the NSPCC - the Duke tells of the strain which his naval and royal duties put on the couple who were separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
"Sarah and I calculated that we only saw each other 40 or 50 days a year at one stage. So, of course, it was not surprising what eventually happened. I did not know what to do. I have always had to juggle different lives. Oddly, it did not really ring alarm bells until it was too late and, even when they may have rung, the tendency was to bury one's head in the sand.
"It was just too difficult. If there were cries for help, they were either not answered or not understood. We did put out cries to other people. And, in the end, it was all too little too late. But that's life, unfortunately."
Royal sources say that, while the existing situation may continue for the forseeable future, it is extremely unlikely to result in remarriage. Some Buckingham Palace courtiers still blame the Duchess for damaging the standing of the Royal Family and she has no great desire to return to the formal royal fold.
Rather, the present situation seems to be a status quo which suits everyone, at least until the two young Princesses are both at their new schools. ">In September, Princess Beatrice, 11, will start at Aiglon College at Villars in Switzerland. Princess Eugenie, 10, will join her there two years later. It remains to be seen if the Duchess will then establish a base in Switzerland to be close to the girls.
The Duke, meanwhile, is to continue his career in the Navy. Despite their closeness, the couple are routinely linked with other people. In the case of the Duke, these have famously included Caprice, the model, although he makes light of it. "Of course, I know Caprice. But just because I have dinner with someone who is blonde and incredibly pretty, it does not mean it should end up in the newspaper as something of any significance."
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BAD weather yesterday forced the Prince of Wales to spend his third day away from worldly concerns amid the bearded monks of Mount Athos, where he arrived on Tuesday originally planning a brief visit.
Greece’s media, attempting to penetrate the secrecy with which the Prince’s entourage has shrouded his holiday, interpreted the stay as an indication of his growing spiritual concerns, as Camilla Parker Bowles awaited his return to the luxury yacht Alexander, sheltering at the nearby island of Thasos.
Alpha Television quoted sources on Mount Athos as saying the Prince spent two days at the seaside Vatopedion Monastery in faithful attendance of prayer sessions and Orthodox religious services.
Expecting to be able to return to the yacht today, he decided to spend the intervening hours touring the larger monasteries of the Athos peninsula, which has been self-governing for a millennium and bans females of all species from setting foot on what the Greeks call the Holy Mountain.
Though the northerly gales sweeping down the Aegean abated in the afternoon, the Greek media reported that the Prince would be compelled to spend a third night on Athos, adding that he appeared quite happy to do so. Commentators on Alpha Television speculated that his sympathy for the Greek Orthodox faith could be on the rise.