ABSTRACT
It was hardly into a life of poverty that Clara Collet was born on 10 September 1860, yet nor was it into a life of luxury. The family home was at Sunny Bank, Maryleville Road, Hornsey Lane, Islington; a road of mixed character with poor families living intermingled with more middle-class families like the Collet family. Women worked at the ‘numerous laundries round about’1 and Collet Dobson Collet, Clara’s father, was considering purchasing a small laundry himself to supplement his income as a teacher of singing and editor of the non-profit-making journal, the Free Press. The neighbours were of widely differing occupations varying from labourers to stockbrokers, and from farm workers to bank clerks.2 Despite the obvious poverty of some of the occupants, the road was in a pleasant elevated location with views overlooking the surrounding environs and, on a clear day, central London. Yet it was far enough away from the city to ensure the avoidance of the worst of the fogs, the stench of the sewage-filled Thames and the moral and physical dangers of the street people populating all but the better areas of the capital. It was close enough to enable easy access to the Crouch End railway station on the Great Northern Railway line which was less than five minutes walk away. The other advantage was that Hornsey Lane, being close to Highgate provided a useful source of middle-and upper-class clients able and willing to pay for Mr Collet’s singing lessons.
