Former concert pianist battles to keep home in Tube station car park

[Jazzy]

Anne Naysmith was the protégé of some of the most revered figures in classical music, including Sir Adrian Boult and Harold Craxton.



But after falling on hard times, the former concert pianist has even lost the trees she nurtured to provide shelter in her makeshift home beside a London Underground station.



Miss Naysmith, 75, has been living in a car park for the last 10 years, having previously spent 30 years sleeping in her Ford Consul after being evicted from her home in Chiswick, west London.



This week, Transport for London contractors pulled down her trees and plants to repair a security fence, leaving her “heartbroken”.



Miss Naysmith had been a promising performer under the tutelage of Craxton and Liza Fuchsova at the Royal Academy of Music.



Born simply Anne Smith, she gave concerts in London and the Home Counties in recital and with orchestra, including one at the famous Wigmore Hall in February 1967. A review of her performance described the “rich warmth” of her rendition of Rachmaninov.



She now cuts a divisive figure in the community where she lives rough. Occasionally she visits the nearby St Mary's Convent and Nursing Home.



Matron Liz Smith said: We may have served her tea or refreshments some time, which we do for the homeless.



Describing the “urban garden” she now calls home, she said she had no intention of leaving the plot, which belongs to London Underground.



“I’m really heartbroken about this tree,” she said. “I nourished it for 10 years and the last couple of years it’s been thick with plums and thick with flowers.



“People have really enjoyed looking at it.



“They say they had to replace the fence but they could have got to it from the other direction.



“I think it was a malicious act, willing to make a nuisance of themselves and hurt me and damage my land.”

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Not sure how she thinks this land belongs to her unless after such a long time, she has squatters rights.



What do you think?

 

[Evil Eye]

I don't think they're trying to throw her out... She just wants her tree back I think