Its nightclubs and bars arm is also up for sale.The deal will hasten the departure of First Leisure's chief executive Michael Grade, who is to stand down in favour of Graham Coles, currently the company's finance director.Mr Grade is expected to step down once he has sold off First Leisure's nightclubs and bars.However Mr Grade's break-up plan has incurred the wrath of his aunt, Lady Delfont, the widow of First Leisure's founder She accused her nephew of "asset stripping' the company. Duke Street's other big deal this year was the pounds 42m sale in January of Country Hotels to Regal Hotels.Duke Street, based in St James's in West London, was spun off last year from Hambros and is run by Edmund Truell.The sale is the latest stage of First Leisure's quest to reinvent itself as a dedicated operator of health and fitness clubs.The company has already sold off its bingo halls and a resorts division, which included the Blackpool Tower. Its most recent deal came in March with the pounds 30m acquisition of Stretton Leisure, the fruit machine business previously owned by Greenalls. But its interest is thought to have waned due to the distraction of its involvement in Punch Taverns' bid for Allied Domecq's pub estate.The winning bid has seen Duke Street team up with Allied Leisure, the bowling-to-Burger King group that recently secured a merger with rival European Leisure.Sources close to the deal suggest that it was the involvement of Allied, whose team will run the businesses, which helped secure Duke Street's victory at the expense of a rival bid from 3i, the Manchester-based venture capitalist.Duke Street's triumph is the latest in a series of leisure coups for the company. The package also includes Trecco Bay in Wales, Britain's largest caravan park, and the Snowdome indoor ski-slope in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Bass had previously been expected to acquire the businesses with a knockout bid of pounds 115m just for the bowling alleys. Duke Street's expected deal with the the leisure group values the 28 Superbowl alleys at pounds 110m. DUKE STREET CAPITAL, the venture capitalist, was close to clinching a surprise victory in the battle for First Leisure's bowling alleys last night.

This has led to fears that the screens do not provide adequate security against rogue traders like Stephen Humphries, from Sussex Futures, who recently lost pounds 750,000 on unauthorised deals in the UK government bond futures market.. They are so incensed by this alleged intransigence that they are planning to hold a protest in the near future by boycotting the exchange for a day.There is also concern that unlike pit traders, screen-based dealers do not need to be registered with a regulator. Although Liffe has said that it will let the market determine which platform it prefers, locals claim that the exchange is set on closing the pits and transferring all its business to the screens. However, some of the banks who make up Liffe's customer base have argued that complex short-term interest rate products like Euribor and short sterling are best-suited to trading on open-outcry. They point out that Eurex's electronic screens have only managed to capture about 12 per cent of the Euribor market, even though the service is free.Trading in both short sterling and Euribor will operate in tandem in the pits and on screens until at least March.

Some say they have been summoned to meetings where the exchange's management has expressed its eagerness for them to continue trading after the conversion to Connect.However, Liffe's charm offensive has failed to assuage the bitterness felt on the exchange's floor at the way the transfer to Connect has been handled.One local said: "Liffe has not consulted us at all about this so it is a bit strange that they have suddenly become concerned about us."Having lost the vast majority of the German government bond futures market to Eurex, the automated German ex-change, Liffe is desperate to retain its dominance of the Euribor market to preserve its reputation as a global player. The move is expected to bring to an end open- outcry trading, where deals are executed by traders standing side-by-side in "pits".Liffe has already switched most of its other contracts to Connect, but experts predict that the transfer of Euribor and short sterling will prove more troublesome.The locals say that Liffe has offered them an olive branch out of concern that its business will dry up should they decide to give up. Liffe denies having made any such offer. Two large UK banks, thought to be Halifax and NatWest, are said to be backing the locals in their drive to preserve the open-outcry pits, which have characterised the exchange through- out its 17-year existence.The Euribor and short sterling markets, which enable participants to bet on the direction of European and UK interest rates, are next month due to convert to Connect. They claim the offer of free software, hardware and exemption from transaction charges is motivated by Liffe's concern that the new system will fail. Locals, who uniquely trade the exchange's derivative products with their own money, say that the exchange has offered them free use of the new screens. Its existence had been suspected but its location was unknown until the pounds 70m excavation and construction project began..

THE COMPLETION of Liffe's electronic revolution is under threat from the exchange's "local" dealers, who feel victimised by the introduction of Connect, the new screen-based trading system. We believe there should be an art gallery in the heart of the City of London that the 250,000 city workers and other visitors can enjoy." The collection has works dating back to the 16th century, and by painters such as Constable, Millais and Rossetti.Archaeological investigation of the site began in 1987, and uncovered medieval and Saxon remains, and part of a Roman amphitheatre. Around 250 works will go on display at any one time, and the gallery will be open seven days a week.Anthony Moss, chairman of the Libraries and Guildhall Art Gallery Committee, said the original gallery was set up in 1886 with the intention of "supporting, encouraging and developing a collection of art worthy of the capital city".He said: "The sentiment is true today. The collection of about 4,000 works has been without a permanent home since the original Guildhall Art Gallery was destroyed by fire during the Second World War. But now, the Corporation, Britain's biggest sponsor of the arts after the Government and the BBC, has built a gallery on the same site as its predecessor in Victorian chambers beneath the Old Print Room of the Guildhall. CITY WORKERS in need of cultural rejuvenation are to be able to view the Corporation of London's own art collection for the first time in 50 years, writes Louise Jury. "I believe there will be more clashes as local guerrilla chiefs seek more power," he said.. But even though an agreement was reached last month, it has had little practical effect, leaving the north in Serb hands.Questioned last week about the situation in Mitrovica, where war crimes suspects are roaming freely under French troops' noses, the French defence minister, Alain Richard, was dismissive.