here's something missing from John Virtue's London skylines: the  London Eye. And that's not just because he dislikes the featherlight airiness of the wheel, so at odds with his bituminous, Dante-like vision of a beaten-up, endlessly remade city of men scarred by the damage of history. Virtue's London is more battlefield than playground; his angle of vision is the angel's hover rather than the child's expectation of ascent.

But his aversion also stems from what the Eye represents: a bubble-glazed, sound-sealed enclosure, an encapsulated rotation to postcard epiphany. Up it inexorably goes, carrying the happy hamsters, far above the grunts and grinds of the town. What Virtue most hates about it - I'm guessing - is its name: the presumption of vision. What his paintings do is take on the hamster wheel: insist that Virtue's vision is the real London eye. Instead of detachment there is smash-mouth contact; instead of mechanically engineered, user-friendly serenity, there is the whipsaw excitement of the city; its rain-sodden, dirt-caked, foul-tempered, beery-eyed, jack-hammered, traffic-jammed, nervy exhilaration. Instead of a tourist fantasy, there is a place.

It's a chilly time of year to be single, the one tiny chunk of the year when, admittedly, it just might be nice to have someone to cuddle up to on a sofa - or even, perhaps, as a hot water bottle substitute. No one feels like going out - it's fa

GB OLYMPIC rower Tom James takes on the Polish national eight in a Boat Race dress rehearsal on the Thames today. - Sports round-up

Raw sewage discharges are being pumped into the Thames every week, according to a new report.

Last year 38m tonnes of sewage despoiled the river, exceeding previous expectations by 18m tonnes.

Ministers are now under fresh pressure to build a £1.5m interceptor tunnel under the river, following the formal release of a study which concludes that the measure is the most cost-effective option.

It would run from Hammersmith, west London, and carry sewage from 36 overflow points to a treatment works in east London.

Crews at the Tower Pier lifeboat rescue station on the River Thames had the busiest year, new figures show.

A woman and baby are pulled from the Thames after their pram is dragged into the river.

THOUSANDS of people turned out at the Cutty Sark in  Greenwich to cheer record-breaking yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur. - South London headlines

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A university professor today told how he watched his wife die in a freak boating accident.

London yesterday said goodbye to its most recent Olympic Games contest. The arrival last week of a dozen members of the International Olympics Committee was treated by the British Government as might a desperate Hollywood starl

Thousands of people along the River Thames welcome record-breaking sailor Ellen MacArthur.

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Crowds line the Thames to welcome Ellen MacArthur as she sails up the Thames.

London bid leader Lord Coe says the city has made a strong case for hosting the Olympics in 2012.

Olympic inspectors sign off from their London visit by praising the city's bid for the 2012 Games.

The team inspecting London's 2012 bid dine with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Daily UK sport news - football, horse racing, motor racing and more. Read daily sport news from the UK at telegraph.co.uk. Online sport news daily.

A GBP10m World War II exhibition begins a nationwide tour and is expected to be seen by three million people.