We miss the neighbourhood spirit, says man who has lived in same house for 96 years

But it's not something that has ever bothered Alex Baker.

He was born in a two-up, two-down terraced home in Portsmouth in 1911.

And he's lived there happily ever since.

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Alex Baker with his wife Edith of 68 years. Right, with his brother Jack in the hat, left just before World War II broke out

The youngest of ten children, he is now the great-grandfather of ten.

His life began in an era of trams and horsedrawn carriages. Now his neighbours' homes are adorned with satellite dishes.

The family connection to the house began when Mr Baker's uncle bought it for £130 at the beginning of the 20th century – the equivalent of around £7,500 today. He passed it on to Mr Baker's mother, Alice. Her husband, Owen, was a confectioner.

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Alex Baker has seen the street he lives in change significantly over the last 96 years

Mr Baker was born in the already crowded house in 1911. He inherited the property from his mother more than 40 years later. She had carried on living there after the death of her husband in 1929.

Mr Baker has spent 68 years sharing the home with his wife Edith, 89.

And despite raising three children of their own, the pair say they have never wanted to move to a bigger place.

Mr Baker, who has five grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, said: "This house has always been my home so why would I want to leave?"

He has seen more than a few changes in the neighbourhood in his 96 years. He remembers seeing trams trundle past in a nearby street and recalls how the family would often struggle to make ends meet.

"We used to take our best shoes and clothes to the pawnbrokers on a Monday and get them back again on Friday," he said.

The neighbours included a regimental sergeantmajor who used to march his children to church, while local businesses included a wheelwright to repair horse-drawn carriages, as well as a slaughterhouse a few doors down.

Mrs Baker said: "They'd block off the alleyway and we'd have pigs and cows and all sorts running down the street."

Her husband also remembers digging a hole for an air raid shelter back in 1939.

Yesterday the couple's son Brian, a 66-year-old retired cabinetmaker from Emsworth, Hampshire, recalled: "There were two bedrooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs, plus a scullery and an outside toilet.

"The bathroom was a tin bath in the yard and we still had gas lamps until I was seven or eight.

"When I was a boy my grandmother slept in the front room downstairs, the other room was the living and dining room, and we all slept upstairs. The rooms are about 12ft by 12ft."

About 50 years ago Mr Baker and his wife added a kitchen and bathroom to the back of the ground floor of the brick house which looks out on to their 30ft garden.

Mr Baker's son added: "The outside has hardly changed at all apart from when my parents had double glazing fitted."

His father worked as a truck boy for the Co-op from the age of 15. "I used to deliver parcels in a handcart," he recalled.

He was later given a job in a warehouse and stayed with the company until he retired.

During the Second World War he served as a Royal Army Service Corps driver and despatch rider in the Middle East. But as soon as the war was over, he came straight back home to the house which is now worth £130,000 – more than a thousand times more than when he was born.

Returning to his childhood memories, Mr Baker said: "My father used to make his own sweets and he had a shop nearby."

He admitted to getting up to some mischief in his younger days: "We had a purse that we filled with horse manure and left on the floor. We would hide around the corner and wait for somebody to pick it up."

Mrs Baker added: 2It was always very friendly. Our key was always in the door and anybody who wanted to come in and have a cup of tea and a biscuit was welcome.

"You could go out and find somebody to talk to – not like now. You can go for a week and not see any neighbours."