Forget the creamy pint of porter served by a red-headed colleen. The Irish theme pub is sliding out of fashion, and being replaced as the trendiest place in town by the Australian bar - complete with stuffed Koalas, surf boards and Antipodean lager.

A YEAR AFTER THE BOMB: Catherine Pepinster on a fashion phenomenon

Basements are back, reports Catherine Pepinster

Blocks of flats are ruining the shore, reports Catherine Pepinster

The notorious sculptor breaks his silence

An Arms firm has paid pounds 15,000 to use a concert at St Paul's Cathedral for corporate hospitality to other defence contractors.

Traditionally it was mothers who tried to find the youngsters they had given up. Now men are coming forward, too, reports Catherine Pepinster

A couple have made pounds 400,000 buying and selling a house in London in a matter of months - without ever having moved into the property.

The forthcoming Millennium exhibition is sparking a huge hotel boom in London. More than 50 hotels are being built across the capital as operators predict that tourists will flock in to celebrate the year 2000. Many are being planned along the Thames. Kay Dymock, a hotel expert with the property adviser Jones Lang Wootton, estimates that about 6,000 rooms with a river view will be built.

Even bosses are losing their personal space and their executive furniture as designers reinvent the workplace