London - Outside Margaret Thatcher's plush central London townhouse, a slow but steady stream of well-wishers laid flowers on Tuesday in tribute to the late British premier.
The creamy-white four-storey home where a frail Thatcher spent her quiet final years is on Chester Square, a plush oasis of calm two streets away from London's busy Victoria railway terminus.
Its reinforced black door, with a brass lion knocker, is reminiscent of the famous front door of 10 Downing Street, just a mile and a half (2.5 kilometres) away, from where Thatcher governed Britain from 1979 to 1990.
Two police officers guard the doorway as sympathisers quietly lay their tributes to the “Iron Lady”, who died Monday aged 87 whilst recuperating at the Ritz Hotel.
Thatcher's home is a few minutes' walk from London's main bus terminal, where countless newcomers from the new democracies of eastern Europe first set foot on British soil.
Among those who came to lay flowers were immigrants from such countries, which Thatcher steadfastly fought to liberate from communism.
From Ostrava in the eastern Czech Republic, Martin Wolf, 37, works at the upmarket Mandarin Oriental hotel in London where Thatcher staged her 80th birthday party.
He thought it was partly down to Thatcher's influence that people from eastern Europe are free to live and work in Britain.
“She was very friendly with our country and went there after the communist time,” he told AFP.
“I'm very sad. I'm interested in everything about her life. She was, for me, a great, great woman. She is a big icon.
“People of course remember her in the Czech Republic.”
He was dismayed at how some left-wing Britons have been celebrating her death.
“I'm shocked. How is this possible? Maybe she wasn't right all the time but I think this is horrible,” he said.
As a van delivered another impressive bouquet, Diaconu Dumitru, 33, from Craiova in southern Romania, who works as a chef in a Vietnamese restaurant, also laid flowers by the black wrought-iron fence in front of the house.
“It's a sad day because she was a great lady. A good politician. She had a lot of very brilliant ideas. She put a big value on ending the Cold War. I have read a lot of things about her,” he said.
A media pen has been erected on the other side of the street, where a dozen camera crews, plus photographers and journalists from around the world document the scene.
Several satellite trucks are parked amongst the Ferraris and Porsches lining the road.
With their Mary Poppins-style chimney tops, houses around Chester Square's well-manicured private garden are on the market for more than £14 million ($21 million, 16 million euros).
Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich was among Thatcher's neighbours. - Sapa-AFP