Bang on target

Wimbledon Common, mythical home of the Wombles, is mainly associated with dog walkers and golfers. So the arrival of TV chef Gordon Ramsay, wearing a bulletproof vest in the back of a military-style Land Rover and accompanied by heavily armed guards, may have caused some bemusement among the patrons of the Windmill tea rooms. The restaurateur was apparently filming a trailer for a documentary about the drug cartels of Colombia, and has been mocked for seeking out the calmer confines of south-west London to do so. But the Common was once not as tranquil as it is today. When the national shooting centre now at Bisley began its life there in the 1860s, Wimbledon would have seen as many shots fired as the jungles of South America. Mr Ramsay was not 5,000 miles away from his destination, then, merely 150 years.