Nos. 146 and 148 London Road were originally a pair of semi-detached houses, built before 1911, while No. 148A to the east was added on in the early 1930s. They were originally called Sandmere Villas, and were then numbered 66 and 68 London Road until the drastic renumbering of the London Road in 1934.

The above photograph was taken in c.2000 when the present Kazan Japanese Cuisine was a recently closed butcher’s shop, the Acropolis Greek Taverna was the Crispy Duck, and the Asian Mama Chinese restaurant was called the Hang Chow.

The present No. 146 (formerly 2 Sandmere Villas/No. 66) on the right

At the time of the 1911 census this was a private house and the carpenter William Taylor (born in Headington in 1862) lived here with his wife Elizabeth and their children Daisy May (21), Edgar (20), and Harold (18), as well as his two sisters-in-law. (Harold died of influenza in the First World War and has a war grave in Headington Cemetery.) William Taylor was described as a carpenter for the builder L. W. Organ in 1921 and was still living here with his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Daisy May Rogers (32) and her husband Alan Stewart Rogers, who was a bookseller's assistant at Thornton's in Broad Street. The Mrs D. Rogers who ran a confectioner's shop here from 1929 to 1934 is probably Daisy.

The 1939 Register shows George W. Murphy (born 1904), described as a grocer, baker, & confectioner, living here with his wife Rosie and their child, plus Charles W. Murphy, a retired joiner who was probably his father.

The present No. 148 (formerly 1 Sandmere Villas/No. 68) on the left

At the time of the 1911 census this was a private house, occupied by the grocer's assistant Frank Dallaway (38) and his wife Edith and their nine-year-old daughter Irene, plus two elementary school teachers boarded with them.

It was still a private house in 1921 when the widow Ethel May Webb (39), whose husband William Webb had been killed in the First World War) lived here with her five children.

This was a butcher's shop from 1936 to 1968. The 1939 Register shows the butcher Harold Weaver (born 1908) living here with his wife Violet, described as a butcher's assistant, and their four-year-old daughter Caryll.

Occupants of this group of shops