Jenny Lind the Artist by Henry Scott Holland

Some little time before her first appearance, while the rehearsals were still in progress, Mademoiselle Lind quitted the residence of her friend, in Eccleston Street, to take possession of a detached cottage, pleasantly situated, in its own grounds, at Old Brompton. It will be remembered that, by the terms of her contract with Mr. Lumley, she was to be provided with a furnished residence, at the expense of the management; and, of all the houses she had seen, "Clairville Cottage," as it was then called, was the only one that seemed to please her. Though small and unpretending, it was both comfortable, and convenient; it was within a moderate drive of the theatre; and the neighbourhood in which it stood-now absorbed in the new district of South Kensington-was sufficiently retired to ensure the privacy which, indeed, formed one of its principal attractions.

Nearly all the old houses in this part of Old Brompton have long since been pulled down; and the actual site of Clairville Cottage and its pretty suburban garden is now occupied by one of the more modern and much larger residences in Brechin Place, the ground on which it stood forming part of a quadrangle, bounded by Brechin Place on its northern and southern sides, by the Gloucester Road, on its eastern side, and on that towards the west, by Rosary Gardens.