A WOMAN who lived in the same Waltham Forest house for 95 years celebrated her 100th birthday on Tuesday.

She was born in Islington but moved with her mother to Winns Avenue, Walthamstow, when she was a baby.

Ms Mason said: "My mother took a Warner flat and she paid three or four shillings per week for it. I lived there all my life, mostly because my mother was a widow. We had no option but to stay there."

She added that it broke her heart when a landlord recently bought the house but said the carers at residential care home George Mason Lodge, Chelmsford Road, Leytonstone, where she moved in eight weeks ago have been wonderful to her.

She went to a school at the end of her street until she was 14 when she got a job because she could not afford to continue to be educated.

Ms Mason sewed dresses and curtains at Garners factory which used to be in Walthamstow High Street.

She made housekeeper's cottage curtains for Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of cricketer Imran Khan.

"I made all sorts of things throughout my working life and I did not marry. I didn't have time for things like romance because I had to care for my mother who was half blind," she said.

Her favourite pastime was tending her garden.

She said: "I was happy as long as I could garden. It is a full time job if you love to garden. Gardening is my happiest memory."

Doing hard work all her life was the secret to her long life, Ms Mason added.

She celebrated her birthday with cake provided by Fortnum and Mason and care officer Anita Markham said karaoke songs were performed in celebration of Ms Mason's achievement.