Former Royal family clerk calls Bexley home 'uninhabitable'

Hazel Speed, 73, claims she has spent months sleeping under coats in a recliner chair after a persistent leak left her Welling home waterlogged and slippery.

Hazel – who once worked as a clerk at the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, which administers state honours – has lived in her Maxwell Road house for over 30 years.

But she says it was left “uninhabitable” by a contractor’s bodged toilet repair, which her landlord has since failed to rectify.

“I’ve come to the end of my tether sleeping here in the smell of urine,” she said.

Hazel's downstairs hallway was covered with cardboard and towels in an effort to dry it out, but was still so wet that Hazel and our reporter had to wear shoe protectors (Image: Charles Thomson)

“The water stopped leaking in on May 2 but it’d been pouring down non-stop for about eight or nine weeks.

“The stench is terrible now the weather’s warmer. It’s drying it out, which is good in one way, but the smell is terrible and there are bugs crawling out of the carpet.

“I wake up in the night with the smell. I had the fan on all last night but I felt I could vomit.”

Hazel’s landlord, Moutview Estates PLC, declined to comment when approached by the News Shopper.

When our reporter visited last Wednesday, May 8, her downstairs hallway carpet was covered in sodden cardboard and paper towels.

Hazel said her bathroom was so dangerous that she now only used it when she needed the toilet, preferring instead to wash from a bucket (Image: Charles Thomson)

She said she could not walk around her ground floor without shoe protectors, giving a pair to our reporter as well.

“It squelches,” she said. “It’s an area of devastation.”

The problem began in winter and left the house freezing cold and damp, she alleged.

At one point, she said, she felt so ill that she walked to the local high street looking for help, finding a good Samaritan who helped her move her belongings – including her prized keepsakes from her time working for the royals – into unaffected rooms.

Hazel worked in the honours department – making her part of “The Queen’s Household” – in the 1970s and 1980s. She said she once had lunch with Lady Diana, shortly before her marriage to the now King Charles.

Hazel Speed, a former clerk in the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, holds up her Silver Jubilee medals (Image: Charles Thomson)

In addition to her day job, Hazel was secretary of the Royal Household Film Society. Her leaving party was held in the Buckingham Palace cinema. 

 In 1977, she was awarded a Silver Jubilee Medal by Queen Elizabeth II and received glowing references from Buckingham Palace, commending her accuracy, dedication and popularity.

She left in 1984 to emigrate to Canada but later returned to the UK to become a full-time carer to her elderly mother, who lived in the Maxwell Road house. Hazel has lived there since 1991, she said.

She contacted the News Shopper last month saying that after a contractor came to fix her toilet, it sprung a leak which went unfixed for weeks.

Wallpaper in Hazel's kitchen was mouldy and peeling off (Image: Charles Thomson)

When we visited her in Bexley last Wednesday, May 8, there was brown and black staining on the wallpaper on her kitchen walls and ceilings. The paper was peeling away and mould was visible.

“God knows what I’m breathing in,” she said. “It’s like working in a cigarette factory. I’ve collapsed in that kitchen before.”

Her stairs and upstairs landing floor were soaking wet. The wallpaper on the stairs had a large area of staining.

“It’s dangerous,” she said. “Somebody went flying down there the other day.”

Her bathroom floor was covered in plastic sheeting and there was mould growing in one of her bedrooms.

Hazel's upstairs landing was covered in soaked towels and kitchen roll. Her bathroom floor was covered in plastic sheeting (Image: Charles Thomson)

She had moved many of her possessions into her bedroom and dining room to protect them, so was living in her lounge, where she had her fridge and kettle set up.

“It’s no way for anyone to live,” she said.

The News Shopper approached Mountview Estates PLC for comment by email that day, which went unanswered.

When we telephoned on Friday, the firm said our query would be sent to the right person.

On Tuesday, May 14, a staff member - who would not give their name - said by phone: “It’s something we wouldn’t comment on.”

But that same day, Hazel said she received a visit from the landlord to discuss beginning to fix the problems.

“I thank you profusely,” she told the News Shopper. “You have done what no one else was interested to do.”