Tulse Hill

Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It lies to the south of Brixton, east of Brixton Hill, north of West Norwood and west of West Dulwich and Thurlow Park.

Tulse Hill

Norwood Road, Tulse Hill
Tulse Hill
Location within Greater London
OS grid referenceTQ315735
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLONDON
Postcode districtSW2
Postcode districtSE21 SE27
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly

History

Wards of Lambeth in 2002, including Tulse Hill ward.
A map showing the Tulse Hill ward of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough as it appeared in 1916.

The name of the area comes from the Tulse family who came into ownership of farmland in the area during the period of the Commonwealth in the 1650s.[1]

The area known as Tulse Hill is part of the former Manor or Manors of Bodley, Upgroves and Scarlettes whose precise boundaries are now uncertain. Sir Henry Tulse was Lord Mayor of London in 1683 and his daughter Elizabeth married Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow.[2] The land remained in Onslow ownership until 1789 when most of it was purchased by William Cole. The estate was further divided on Cole's death in 1807.

The western part was left to "Mercy Cressingham, spinster" (now commemorated by the Cressingham Gardens estate in the area) and the eastern part -now mostly occupied by Brockwell Park - was left to Richard Ogbourne who promptly sold it on to John Blades.

In 1810 Tulse Hill Farm was the only building in the western part of the area. The enclosure of land in the parish of Lambeth in 1811 led to the construction of Effra Road in the area immediately to the north. Together with improvements to Brixton Road by the local turnpike trust this greatly improved road communications with central London, and the value of the local landholdings.

Mercy Cressingham eventually married Dr Thomas Edwards, who took the initiative in buying extra land to make an access from Brixton Hill in 1814 and laying out two new roads, Lower Tulse Hill Road (now known simply as Tulse Hill) and Upper Tulse Hill Road (now Upper Tulse Hill), by 1821. A plan of 1821 in the RIBA Library shows a proposed speculative development of both the Edwards estate and the adjacent Blades estate with large detached villas, although only the former actually came to fruition. The new roads were adopted by the parish in 1822.

An 1832 map shows that Tulse Hill still had only a few buildings on the new roads in contrast to nearby recently developed areas in Brixton and Norwood and the longer established hamlet of Dulwich.[3] However, by 1843, there was a continuous line of houses, predominantly detached and usually with separate coach houses along the full length of Lower Tulse Hill Road from Brixton to the top of the hill.

Development of the area to the east of this road commenced in 1845 when Trinity Rise was built to connect Upper Tulse Hill with Norwood Road. Holy Trinity Church on Trinity Rise was built in 1855-6 and is now grade II listed.

Major development of the area further east did not come until the opening of Tulse Hill railway station in 1868.

Most of the original villas with large gardens on the original Edwards-Cressingham landholding have been redeveloped at much higher densities for council housing since the 1930s.

The most prominent survival of 19th century Tulse Hill is Berry House, later called Silwood Hall, and now forming the front part of St Martin-In-The-Fields High School for Girls, a Church of England secondary school which has outlasted the nearby 1950s schools.

The redevelopment of Tulse Hill after World War II by the London County Council had included the construction of two large secondary schools - Tulse Hill School and Dick Sheppard School (originally for girls only). Both schools have now closed, and their sites have been redeveloped for housing of very contrasting types. The Dick Sheppard School site was redeveloped as Brockwell Gate,[4] a gated Regency style with houses and apartments overlooking Brockwell Park.

The site of Tulse Hill school was redeveloped as affordable housing. It appeared on the news on 22 July 2005 after a police surveillance operation on a blocks of flats in Scotia Road within the new development. Following the 21 July 2005 London bombings, the terrorist suspect Osman Hussain was linked to a flat in the block. Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was a resident of the same block and was fatally shot at Stockwell tube station by the police who had been tracking Hussain.

Transport

Roads

At the southern end of Tulse Hill is a major road junction between the A204 (Tulse Hill), A205 (South Circular) and the A215 (Norwood Road).

In September 2020, Lambeth Council introduced a trial road change using the Low Traffic Neighbourhood model as part of emergency changes related to COVID-19. The model limits through roads helping to keep residential roads for residents and is based on a similar successful scheme in Walthamstow and the concept of the 15-minute city trialled in Paris, Madrid, Milan and Barcelona.

Buses

The area is served by London Buses routes 2, 68, 196, 201, 432, 415, 322, 468 and P13 and route 3 goes along Effra Road and Dulwich Road to the north of Tulse Hill before passing through West Dulwich along the Croxted Road east of the Hill.

Rail

Tulse Hill railway station is served by Southern and Thameslink trains. The railway bridge over the A205 was frequently subject to vehicle strikes until a new warning system was installed in 2017.[5]

Prominent buildings

Notable people

Local government elections

Tulse Hill 2018 (3)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Mary Atkins * 2,289
Labour Marcia Cameron * 2,271
Labour Ben Kind 2,102
Green Gerlinde Gniewosz 947
Green Kate Whitehead 938
Green Andy Plant 795
Liberal Democrats Matthew Coldrick 318
Liberal Democrats Terry Curtis 289
Conservative Claire Gardener 280
Conservative Ed Gormley 255
Conservative Roger Green 235
Liberal Democrats Scott Liddle 213
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Tulse Hill 2014 (3)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Mary Atkins * 2,276
Labour Adedamola Aminu * 2,073
Labour Marcia Cameron * 2,044
Green Elkin Atwell 742
Green Jonathan Chuter 713
Green Will Wynter 615
Conservative Lavinia Cartwright 305
Liberal Democrats Matthew Coldrick 266
Conservative John White 256
Conservative Martin Read 250
Liberal Democrats Terry Curtis 242
Liberal Democrats John Foster 185
TUSC Kieran O'Mant 105
TUSC Marcel Richards 78
Total votes
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Tulse Hill 2010(3)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Marcia Cameron * 3,232
Labour Adedamola Aminu * 3,186
Labour Toren Smith * 3,160
Liberal Democrats Oliver Clifford-Mobley 1,764
Liberal Democrats Nicholas Wright 1,748
Liberal Democrats Lule Tekeste 1,668
Green Bernard Atwell 759
Green Kate Whitehead 698
Green Jane Hersey 656
Conservative Hugh Bennett 608
Conservative Joanna Hindley 556
Conservative Gail Thompson 503
Total votes 18,538
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Tulse Hill 2006 (3)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Marcia Cameron 1,589
Labour Toren Smith * 1,528
Labour Adedamola Aminu 1,514
Green Bernard Atwell 818
Liberal Democrats James Lucas 582
Liberal Democrats Robert McConnell 432
Liberal Democrats Nick Perry 374
Conservative Josephine Lomax 353
Conservative Edna Richards 309
Conservative Roger Lomax 306
Total votes 7,705
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing
Labour hold Swing

Nearest places

Nearby attractions

In literature

Samson Young, protagonist in Martin Amis's London Fields goes to Tulse Hill to buy drugs.

Jason Strugnell, a fictional poet in Wendy Cope's Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis, lives in Tulse Hill and mentions it a couple of times in "his" poems.

The "Tulse Hill Parliament", a political club, features in P. G. Wodehouse's comic novel Psmith in the City. The author attended Dulwich College, which is in the vicinity.

Noel Streatfeild's novel "Tennis Shoes" (1937) is written about a family who live in Tulse Hill.

Tulse Hill and its surrounding areas are locations in Mark Billingham's crime novel "In The Dark".[7]

References

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