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Anne Naysmith
Anne Naysmith was living in the corner of a car park at the foot of a London underground embankment. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
Anne Naysmith was living in the corner of a car park at the foot of a London underground embankment. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Transport for London razes homeless woman's shelter

This article is more than 11 years old
Anne Naysmith, who made her home at foot of London underground embankment, sees garden cut back

Perhaps to some it was a bit of an eyesore: a makeshift shelter carved out of bushes and small trees in the corner of a car park at the foot of a London underground embankment.

But for Anne Naysmith, a former concert pianist who has lived on these streets for more than 30 years (most of them in a battered old car), it was a kind of home. She grew flowers and nurtured fruit trees here, chatted to commuters as they bustled past and every afternoon lit a fire to cook a simple meal.

Now the camp lies in tatters after workmen hacked back the vegetation that offered Miss Naysmith – as everyone knows her – a little protection against the elements and cut down her beloved cherry and plum trees.

Transport for London (TfL) insists the shelter was razed so a security fence could be built to keep thieves, vandals and children away from the tube line. But some of Naysmith's neighbours and friends suspect the powers that be simply did not like her unconventional lifestyle.

Naysmith, still sprightly at 75, did not mince her words. "It's wanton, wicked vandalism. This was a lovely patch of garden. I was doing nobody any harm. It seems that if they don't like the look of something they can just knock it all down. It's a disgrace."

The story of Miss Naysmith has curious echoes of Miss Shepherd who lived in a van on the drive of the writer Alan Bennett's home across the capital in Camden, north London, and was immortalised in his essay and play The Lady in the Van.

Both were talented musicians who fell on hard times, had run-ins with the authorities but throughout it all remained fiercely independent, proud and dignified.

Naysmith was a promising pianist who once played at Wigmore Hall in central London. But in the late 1970s she ran into financial problems and suffered the heartbreak of a failed romance. She was evicted from her home in Prebend Gardens in Chiswick, west London, and took to living in her Ford Consul on the street outside the flat.

She would spend mornings roaming the neighbourhood, and in the afternoons retire to the car park at the foot of the embankment where she began to create her shelter and garden. She used ash from her fire and soil scavenged from skips to build her flower beds. Some neighbours donated flowers and plants and she picked up abandoned seedlings.

But 10 years ago her beloved car was towed away after a neighbour complained it was blighting the well-heeled neighbourhood. Naysmith was deeply upset but carried on living in the area. Quite where she sleeps remains unclear – she will not say – but her car park corner continued to function as a living room, kitchen and garden.

She said she could not believe it when she came upon the workmen cutting back the vegetation. "I started screaming: 'Police, police!' I couldn't understand what had happened. I thought it was beautiful. Why would anyone do something like that?"

A neighbour, nurse Betty Furner, found her trembling with shock and wailing. "I'm shocked at what's happened," said Furner. "This was a little corner of London where somebody was getting on with an innocent, blameless life. I don't believe it's got anything to do with safety concerns."

Another neighbour, John Power, who always stops to chat to Naysmith about the arts, said many local people were very angry. "This is her house. She is a valued member of the community who deserves much better than this uncaring treatment."

Power said the workers could easily have put up the fence from the other side of Miss Naysmith's camp and left it untouched.

"She is special. She rebelled and is accepted in this community. And then some big organisation comes and does this to her."

TfL insisted the work had been carried out simply to replace a section of damaged fencing that was a security risk. A spokesperson said: "The contractors were not aware of the special significance this piece of land had for Miss Naysmith and their primary concern was dealing with a safety critical issue. Obviously we very much regret the distress caused to Miss Naysmith."

Despite her troubles, Naysmith did not change her routine on Thursday. She spent the morning walking up and down Chiswick high road foraging for scraps to feed the pigeons and herself. By the afternoon she was in her devastated garden, huddled under an umbrella that a thoughtful neighbour had provided and vowing to rebuild.

"I'll just have to start again. I won't give in and I'm not going to move away."

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