Every morning for 30 years, the head cleaner at the Pentagon Centre ate a breakfast of grilled tomatoes on three slices of white toast at his favourite cafe.

Now Eric Sharp, who cleaned the Chatham shopping centre since the day it opened, has died aged 81 from a heart attack in the cafe he loved.

Tributes were paid to the grandfather-of-four this week, who relatives called "the heart and soul" of the centre.

Mr Sharp seemed in perfect health before he collapsed in Jesse's Cafe, in the centre, on the morning of October 13.

Staff rushed to revive him and he was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital, where he died on October 20.

His daughter Erica Sharp, 37, said: "I always told him he would drop down dead in the Pentagon, and that's exactly what he did. He had outlived everyone else there. He lived for his work and he died where he was happy."

Mr Sharp was born in Rochester and attended Troy Town School, leaving Medway only when he was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War.

As a teenager he won medals for swimming and speed-walking and founded Kent Industrial Cleaning Services, the firm he ran for more than 60 years until the day he collapsed.

He began by cleaning chandeliers in stately homes, but moved his skills to Chatham as the Pentagon Centre was built.

After his marriage broke down he brought up his two children, Erica and Paul, by himself in his home in Ashenden Close, Wainscott.

Mrs Sharp said: "He collected antique clocks and watches, which annoyed the rest of us. There are at least 20 in the front room, all ticking and on time."

The cleaner won more than £5,000 on the National Lottery in the 1990s when he bought a ticket with Jesse's chef Oz Bailk.

Naz Zihni, who runs a branch of Jesse's in Chatham High Street, said: "He was a bubbly chap, so well-loved and respected around the whole shopping centre."

His sister Sandy Nye added: "He was very much a self-made man, a bit of a Del Boy. He always did things his way and he was always smiling."

He also leaves grandchildren Courtney, Connor, Callum and Aiden.

All are welcome to a service at Medway Crematorium at noon on Monday, November 7. Family flowers only. Donations for the intensive care unit at Medway Maritime Hospital to A H Apps Funeral Directors, Luton Road, Chatham.

Did you know Mr Sharp? Leave your tributes below.