The poplar penny whistlers

At the sonorous boom of the foghorn, young Hester Stainsby gives an involuntary shudder. In the cavernous basement laundry room of the Poplar Hospital where she toils from dawn to dusk, there is fog too, damp, hot and swirling. Her fears are realized; her father, Fred, has been badly injured in the East India Docks. Hester, already caring for her twin siblings and her grandmother, now has the role of breadwinner.