In the mid-1950s came the first serious threat to Strand School's existence, when two large comprehensive schools were opened locally: Dick Sheppard School for girls in 1955,London County Council, (1962), Secondary Schools in Bermondsey, Lambeth and Southwark, Division 8 and the giant Tulse Hill School for boys in 1956, the latter built on what had been the Strand playing fields.London County Council, Secondary Schools: Division 8, April 1962, page 24. Only by a narrow marginfollowing an intense campaign by parents, old boys and school governorshad the school beaten off a plan to abolish it as a grammar school, and turn it into one of the two comprehensives: what became Tulse Hill Comprehensive was to have been known as "Strand Comprehensive."
