A LUXURY Georgian mansion in an exclusive quarter of London may be a perfect home for a Prime Minister, but Bolton pensioner Hilda Mann would not swap it for her own modest council flat.

Last week it was revealed that Tony and Cherie Blair were paying out £3.6 million for a home in Connaught Square, London, in readiness for the time when he leaves Downing Street.

And they will have the same address as 89-year-old Hilda . . . for the only other Connaught Square in Britain is in Tonge Moor, Bolton.

Hilda lives at the same number as the Blairs will do.

But despite the grandeur of the Blairs' five bedroomed, two bathroom mansion, Mrs Mann says she would rather have her own rented first floor council flat.

"I wouldn't want it," said great grandmother Mrs Mann.

"I have never been to London and I would not want to go." She said she would not want all the noise, dirt and crowds of the capital.

To Mrs Mann, her one-bedroomed flat is her dream home.

She has lived in the flat since it was first built nearly 40 years ago and, apart from modest improvements made by the council over the years such as double glazing and a new roof, it remains essentially the same as it was the day she and her husband, Thomas moved in.

"It has still got the same sink in the back kitchen. There is nothing wrong with it," she said.

A former mill worker and cleaner, Mrs Mann, who has a daughter, Ann from her first marriage, married widower and father of six grown-up children Thomas after a whirlwind romance.

The pair initially lived in Cleveleys Avenue, Tonge Moor, but then, as the children were all grown up, applied for a council flat -- a new start for them both.

They were delighted to be offered Connaught Court.

"The flat contains happy memories," said Mrs Mann.

"It is so convenient here," she said.

"There are all the shops we need here and my daughter does a lot of shopping for me."

The bright lights and the fast pace of life in the Blairs' London seem a million miles from the quiet of Bolton's Connaught Square and Mrs Mann has no time for the Prime Minister or his politics.

She voted for Labour in the '97 election, but says the war in Iraq means she will not do so again.

So Mr Blair may be rubbing shoulders with international music stars such as Madonna and authors like William Shawcross in his new neighbourhood when he eventually gives up running the country but Mrs Mann reckons her Connaught Square address, where her neighbours are the good working folk of Bolton, takes a lot of beating.

These days she enjoys a good family support network and trips to the library for her beloved books.