QUAINT LONDON HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 11

QUAINT LONDON HOUSE.

HOME ON A BRIDGE. VETERAN'S LIFE IN TOWER.

One of the quaintest little homesteads

in London is to be found at the Battersea end of Chelsea Bridge, where Mr. Edwin May, a pensioned employee of the

Chelsea Council, will shortly complete 25 years of residence. Mr. May's home is one of the four pepper box towers on the bridge, formerly used as toll-houses, and there he has enjoyed an outlook which the wealthiest might envy. His back-door looks out on his own little garden, and

beyond that to a panorama of Battersea Park, a wide stretch of the Thames and the well-wooded Chelsea embankment. Throughout the summer swans and wild ducks keep him company, while in the winter his tower-home is a haunt of seagulls. Mr. May, who is now in his 75th year, told an interviewer recently that the

past winter had been a rare one for gulls. "The hard winter drove thousands inland for shelter," he said. "As a matter of fact, it is a bit trying living here in the winter. Just over a year ago we were flooded out. The water

came up in the dead of night, burst the doors off their hinges, and rose about 4ft. up the stairs. We were asleep at the time and got a terrible shock." Mr. May used to work on the Thames bridges, and took possession of the bridge-house when he retired. The other three towers of the bridge are occupied by council' workmen. • Each tower has four storeys, each floor making a commodious room. By special arrangement Reuter'a world service, in addition to other special sources of information, iB used in the compilation of the overseas intelligence published in this issue, and all rights therein in Australia and New Zealand are reserved. The cable news in this issue accredited to the Times has appeared in that journal, but only where expressly stated is such i news the editorial opinion of the Times.