A woman who has lived in the same house without either hot water or an inside toilet for the past 98 years has just celebrated her 100th birthday.

Dorothy Heritage's privately owned home in Bertal Road, Tooting, still has an outside toilet and has never had a bathroom.

Neighbours threw a party to celebrate her centenary on Friday, which was attended by family and friends.

Miss Heritage was born in 1911, the year the Titanic was launched, the Suffragettes stormed Parliament and Captain Scott set off on his doomed expedition to the South Pole.

She stayed at home to look after her mother until she turned 30, when she went out to work at a transport kitchen during World War 2.

She never married or had children but loved gardening and animals.

Neighbour Clare Thomas said: "I have known her for four years and I think it is amazing how she copes on her own."

Niece Pauline Livingstone, 70, of Collier's Wood said: "Not much has changed in the house really, it has remained the same.

"I have never met a more strong person. She is a feisty lady, she is all there with knobs on."

Miss Heritage said she has not yet received a letter from the Queen, but hopes it will arrive soon.

Commenting on the party she said: "It's been lovely and very nice of them. I have never had anything like this before in my life."

It is extremely rare for homes today not to have a bathroom or inside toilet. Most had them installed in the middle of the last century. A spokesman for Wandsworth Council said it started installing inside toilets in its properties 1920s. He said: "It is the first set up of that nature we have heard of in recent years."

Putney Plumbers said it is very rare for a house in Wandsworth to have an outside bathroom, and it has never been called out to repair one.