Time Walk
A Lane That Never Widened
A comedian was born on this street, and a petrol station on it lasted into the 1990s. The road is narrow and curving, with the Leigham Arms framing its corner at Sunnyhill Road. Walking east, the housing is tightly packed and two-storeyed, with a consistent rhythm all the way along.
Further east, tall trees from the railway lands give the street a leafy backdrop it lacks at its tighter western end. Beneath the cottages and converted shopfronts lies a street shaped twice over — once by Victorian builders, once by a 1930s estate laid over an old house site nearby. That older layer is where its name, unexplained as it is, begins.
Name Origin
A Well Field, Unaccounted For
No source consulted here explains why the road is called Wellfield. The nearest clue sits just beyond it: the Wellfield Estate, a 1930s development, was built on the site of a house called Well House, demolished in 1906, and its surrounding land. Nothing in the sources used here connects that estate's name to the road's own naming, so the link must stay a coincidence rather than an explanation.
History
Cottages, a Comedian, and an Estate Next Door
The street's oldest fabric is late Victorian. A terrace at Nos. 23-31 was built in stock brick with stucco dressings and decorative cast-iron columns, and Wellfield House, a double-fronted gault-brick villa, dates from the same period, as do the semi-detached cottages at Nos. 51-95. At No. 54, a late-19th-century terrace house, the comedian Tommy Trinder was born.
In 1923 Charles Henry Thomas Hales married Florence Mary at St Leonard's Church, Streatham, while the couple were living at 87 Wellfield Road; they were still recorded there in 1939. Meanwhile, just off the street, the Wellfield Estate was built between 1930 and 1933 by a developer named Uttings on the site of the demolished Well House.
Culture
A Rare Survival at the Corner
Alongside it, 54 Wellfield Road holds its own place in the street's story as the birthplace of Tommy Trinder, remembered as one of Britain's best loved entertainers of the mid-20th century.
People
A Comedian and a Couple at No. 87
Tommy Trinder's connection to the street is a birthplace rather than a long residence: he was born at No. 54.
Further along, at No. 87, Charles Henry Thomas Hales and his wife Florence Mary made a longer home. They were living there when they married at St Leonard's Church, Streatham, on 26 December 1923, and the record shows them still at the same address sixteen years later, in 1939.
Recent Times
Petrol Into the 1990s
A motor garage established early in the 20th century at the Sunnyhill Road junction, in front of the Leigham Arms, carried on as a petrol station until the 1990s. It was one of the longer-lived features at the street's tight western corner, outlasting much of the century around it.
A petrol station once stood right at the Wellfield Road and Sunnyhill Road junction, running from the early 1900s into the 1990s.
Today
Shopfronts, Cottages, and a Tunnel Portal
Walking its length today, the street still carries the layers its builders left. On the north side a former parade of shops, now converted to residential use, sits beside a short Victorian terrace in stock brick and stucco with cast-iron window ornament, and further along stand well-spaced semi-detached Victorian cottages. The south side shows a more regimented later terraced development. A railway tunnel portal in stock and red brick, with a keystone and heavy parapet, also stands on the street.
On the Map
Wellfield Road Then & Now
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it called Wellfield Road?
The sources used here do not explain the name. A nearby 1930s development, the Wellfield Estate, was built on the site of a house called Well House, demolished in 1906, but no source links that to the road's own name.
What is Wellfield Road known for?
It is the birthplace of comedian Tommy Trinder at No. 54, and home to the Leigham Arms, a rare surviving Wells-style pub in Lambeth standing at its western junction with Sunnyhill Road.
What did the Wellfield Estate have to do with the road?
The Wellfield Estate was a separate 1930s development nearby, built between 1930 and 1933 by a developer named Uttings on land once occupied by Well House, demolished in 1906.
Is there anything old still standing on Wellfield Road?
Yes. Late-19th-century terraces, semi-detached cottages, and Wellfield House survive, along with a railway tunnel portal in stock and red brick near the street.