England stars call fan behind flag-covered estate

The England fanatic behind the London estate covered in flags has been left "starstruck" after receiving a call from his Three Lions heroes.

Chris Dowse, 29, said he could not believe the reception after the Kirby Estate in Bermondsey, south London, shot to public attention for its zealous support of the national team.

The area has been decorated with more than 300 flags, including mostly St George's Crosses but also some from other nations such as Spain, Portugal and Poland.

And the buzz reached its peak on Saturday when he got the chance to show England stars Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold around the estate on a video call.

The players, who play club football for his beloved Liverpool, were impressed with the scale of support, Mr Dowse said.

"They were blown over by it," he said.

"They said it was the first time they had seen anything like it.

"They were lovely, proper hospitable.

"I asked them 'can you do me a favour?' And Jordan said 'what?' I said 'Bring it home'."

Mr Dowse, a self-employed father-of-three, said he was stunned to see two of his Liverpool heroes on the screen, initially thinking he was just speaking to Henderson.

He said: "I saw Jordan's face and my face was a picture. It took me by surprise when I saw Trent - I was in bits.

"I was a little star struck - it was mustard."

Henderson and Alexander-Arnold told him they thought Manchester City star Fabian Delph had the worst taste in music, listening to deep house, while Mr Dowse said he asked them which former England star they would bring back.

Henderson said Steven Gerrard and Alexander-Arnold opted for David Beckham, he added.

Mr Dowse said the estate began putting up flags during Euro 2012 and then each year had put them out on St George's Day.

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Scott D\u2019Arcy, Press Association in Volgograd'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '1dd0be61-5ae2-4738-9c30-b0779853cad9'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:news,paservice:news:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'England stars call fan behind flag-covered estate'});