Tulse Hill School and its eight caps

When Tulse Hill School for Boys was established in brand new purpose built premises in 1956 it was in the vanguard of comprehensive education in Britain. At that time the eleven-plus examination reigned supreme, allocating the majority of pupils to the secondary modern schools and a minority to the more academically rigorous grammar schools. The comprehensive ideal objected to this 'creaming off' of the most able, believing that pupils of all abilities should be educated under the same roof.

Tulse Hill's founding headmaster set very high standards for the 2000 boys attending the South London school. A house system was established, based upon the system prevalent in public schools and grammar schools. It was considered that while a new pupil might feel rather lost in the huge school, he would find it much easier to identify with the 200 or so boys in his house, even developing that elusive but valuable quality of 'house spirit.'

House masters made it their business to get to know their individual house members and there were regular house meetings. Inter-house sporting fixtures were another feature of school life, together with house outings and social activities. The house system at Tulse Hill was eventually replaced by 'year group pastoral units', which were considered to be more in tune with modern educational ideas, but in their heyday the eight houses were a striking feature of school life which found expression in the eight differing caps worn by the boys.

The eight school houses were named after eminent inhabitants of the borough of Lambeth: Blake - Light Blue; Brunel - Pink (59/67) Dark Blue (68 on); Dickens - Green; Faraday - Dark Blue; Temple - Yellow; Turner - Maroon; Webbs - Grey; Wren - Brown. Pictured here is a Wren House cap.

Tulse Hill also stood apart from most comprehensives by establishing detachments of the Army Cadet Force and the Air Training Corps: military training was commonplace in grammar schools but unusual in a comprehensive.

By the 1980s Tulse Hill School had become a shadow of its former self. The school was closed in 1990 and the buildings were demolished not long afterwards.