The date of Chiswick 'car lady' Anne Naysmith's funeral has been provisionally set as Saturday March 7.

Hundreds of people are expected to pay their respects to the homeless former pianist at St Michael & All Angels Church, in Bath Road, Chiswick, where she was a regular.

The ceremony will take place at 11am and will be followed by a service at Chiswick New Cemetery, in Staveley Road, Chiswick, at 12.30pm.

A council spokesman said the date remained provisional at this stage as enquiries were ongoing to trace any next of kin or to find out if she had left any last wishes.

The church said any well-wishers are welcome, with a large attendance expected given the outpouring of grief which followed her death in a collision with a lorry last Tuesday (February 10), aged 78.

Ms Naysmith was a talented pianist who studied at the Royal College of Music, but after her promising musical career faltered and she was evicted from her house in Prebend Gardens, she took to living outside in her car.

When the ramshackle vehicle was removed in 2002, following complaints about its appearance, she took to sleeping on the streets.

She was known for always refusing charity, from sandwiches to the offer of social housing. Despite giving up playing, she retained her love of music and is understood to have attended church services across London. She was also a keen cricket fan, regularly attending games at Chiswick House and Gardens.

Her makeshift garden in a car park behind Stamford Brook tube station, which she lovingly tended, has been turned into a shrine, with candles, flowers and drawings of the woman described as a "local institution".