Property: Daydream Homes

IF YOU buy Tollgate Cottage in Dulwich, south London, you won't get the 50p toll that every driver must pay to pass through London's last remaining tollgate (left, circa 1895; right, today). It is collected, on behalf of the Alleyn's estate, by an attendant who sits in a little hut in the middle of the road, opposite this pretty but dilapidated cottage.

The Dulwich toll dates back to 1787, when the lord of the manor of Penge was given permission by Dulwich College to cut a road through Dulwich Woods to his farm. Two years later he built the cottage for the toll collector.

The charges have withstood inflation very well: according to the board beside the cottage, the toll remains 3d for every mule, donkey or horse drawing, 2d for every mule, donkey or horse not drawing, 10d per score or proportion thereof of beasts, and 2 1/2 d per score for sheep, lambs or hogs.

Although the cottage was substantially rebuilt in 1821, it needs modernising and comprehensive underpinning.

At the moment it has five rooms, a bathroom and kitchen, and a small private garden that backs on to playing fields.

Guide price, pounds 150,000. Hamptons Dulwich office, 071-738 7622.

(Photographs omitted)