A CENTENARIAN who still lives alone and independently has celebrated reaching the landmark with family and friends.

Elizabeth Belsey received a card from the Queen when she turned 100 on Thursday and marked the occasion with a party at the Bull's Head Hotel in Royal Parade, Chislehurst yesterday.

Thirty-six family members and friends came along, including her son Andrew, daughter Charlotte, grandchildren Anna, Thomas, Martin, Christopher and Elizabeth, and great-grandson Jacob.

Mrs Belsey was born in Battersea but has lived most of her life across the borough, in Keston, Hayes, Beckenham and Chislehurst, where she lives now.

In 1938 she married John Belsey and after the war they moved to a flat in Chislehurst High Street on the site now occupied by Sainsbury's.

Mrs Belsey had a big influence on children in Chislehurst between 1951 and 1964 as she ran a nursery school teaching the kids reading and writing.

Mr Belsey served as a Bromley borough councillor from 1964 to 1970 and died in 2001.

The couple also spent six years living in an old farmhouse in the Dordogne, France, during the 1970s.