A Brief history of Tulsemere Road

The area was previously part of the Knights Hill Farm Estate owned by Edward Thurlow. Building started with large villas in the 1840’s on Lancaster Avenue. The railway opened in Tulse Hill in 1868 and that led the way in urban development. By 1900 there were around 5 building companies actively working in the area including a builder called JR Maley. Most of the houses in Tulsemere Rd were built between 1900 and 1910. 

The Tannoy Loudspeaker company was founded by the Yorkshire-born engineer Guy Fountain (1898-1977) at a garage at 83 Tulsemere Road, as the Tulsemere Manufacturing Company. It originally made battery chargers for wireless radio sets. The company name was changed to Tannoy in 1928 and a small factory was opened in Dalton Road, later moving to Canterbury Grove. Tannoy Square commemorates the site today. In the 80’s and 90’s the rooms above the garages at No83 were a hairdresser called Room at the Top. 

Nos 61-67 were originally named 1-4 Tulsemere Villas. They were renamed and renumbered in 1927, but bizarrely the missing numbers between 25-37 were not touched!

During WW2 Nos 70 -76 on the corner of Towton Rd were destroyed by bombs (where the red brick houses now are) as were houses 16-22. The basement at No 3 was reinforced with wooden beams and acted as the air raid shelter for the street.

Rosemead School was previously from 1949 the Old Vic Theatre School where Prunella Scales Trained, and Gothic Lodge on Idmiston in the 60’s was the local doctors surgery.