Frances Mary Buss...

North London Collegiate School was founded in April 1850 by Frances Mary Buss in the family home at 46 Camden Street, Camden Town. All the family assisted in the school including her brother Septimus and her father, R.W. Buss, who illustrated Dickens' novels and whose paintings now hang in the Sixth Form reference library, known as the Buss Room, in the Old House at Canons. Miss Buss was Headmistress for 44 years and was a notable figure in the struggle for the education of girls in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The school, as it grew bigger, moved to Camden Road and then to Sandall Road. The site at Canons in Edgware was bought in 1929 but the school did not move there fully until 1939. The new building was designed by Sir Albert Richardson.

Miss Buss also founded Camden School for Girls in 1871, for those families unable to pay the higher fees of North London Collegiate School.