Sutton House, London

Coordinates: 51°32′54″N 0°3′1″W / 51.54833°N 0.05028°W / 51.54833; -0.05028
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Sutton House
Sutton House, the oldest house in Hackney
Sutton House, London is located in London Borough of Hackney
Sutton House, London
Location within London Borough of Hackney
Former namesBryck Place
General information
TypeManor house
Architectural styleTudor
LocationHomerton High Street
London, E9
United Kingdom
Coordinates51°32′54″N 0°3′1″W / 51.54833°N 0.05028°W / 51.54833; -0.05028
Completed1535; 489 years ago (1535)
Renovated1993
ClientSir Ralph Sadler
OwnerNational Trust
Technical details
MaterialRed brick
Website
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-house
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated23 April 1951
Reference no.1226810

Sutton House is a Grade II* listed Tudor manor house in Homerton High Street, in Hackney and is in London Borough of Hackney, London, England. It is owned by the National Trust.

History[edit]

16th century[edit]

Dark brown wood panelling with a rippled surface, mounted in rectangular panels from floor to ceiling
The Linenfold Parlour

Originally known as Bryck Place, Sutton House[a] was built in 1535 by Sir Ralph Sadler, Principal Secretary of State to Henry VIII,[3] and is the oldest residential building in Hackney. It is a rare example of a red brick building from the Tudor period, beginning as a three-storey H-plan structure.[4] Sadler then sold the house and surrounding estate to John Machell, a cloth merchant, in 1550, having built a new, grander house in Hertfordshire.[5]

Machell, a successful businessman and member of the Clothworkers' Company[6], used Sutton House as country retreat from his principal London home.[7] The rare, high-quality linen fold panelling in the parlour is likely to have been installed during his time as owner.[8] Machell died in 1558 and the house passed to his wife Joan and his eldest son, also named John.[7] Machell the younger lacked his father's financial acumen, and eventually lost the house in the early 1600s to James Deane, a member of the Drapers' Company, after a series of legal disputes.[9]

17th century[edit]

The Great Chamber

Upon Deane's death, the house passed to his niece Olive, who likely rented it to a series of tenants.[10] In the early 1630s, the house was sold to John Milward, a member of the Vintners' Company[11] and later a silk trader in the East India Company.[12] After suffering financial losses, he transferred ownership of the house in 1639 to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Edward Abbot, a member of the Drapers' Company and director of the East India Company.[13] Abbot also lost the house due to financial difficulties, and in the 1650s the house was acquired by Henry Whittingham, who granted a lease to a prosperous widow named Sarah Freeman.[14] Freeman operated a well-regarded girls' school at Sutton House until her death in 1700.[14] The ownership of the house descended through Whittingham's family to Sarah Wagstaffe, a wealthy widow with four daughters.[15]

18th century[edit]

A sitting room with painted wood-panelled walls, and wooden furniture including a table and chairs, as well as a sideboard.
The Georgian parlour

After Sarah Freemen's death, the school continued in operation until 1740, when the lease was granted to a bricklayer and builder named John Cox who updated and later subdivided the house.[16] By the 1750s, two tenants were listed in the property, Timothy Ravenhill and Mary Tooke, a wealthy Huguenot widow, suggesting that the house had been divided.[17] During this period, new sash windows were installed and Georgian features were added to an expanded east wing of the house.[18] During the second half of the century, a significant number of homes were built in the surrounding streets and the house came into the possession of the Ball family,who owned the house through several generations.[19] During that time, the house was occupied by a succession of Huguenot tenants.[20]

19th century[edit]

In 1816 the house was acquired by Reverend Thomas Burnet for a boys' school, which was attended by the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton[21] and Frederick Young.[22] The building next became Milford House girls' school,[23] which was in operation until 1875.[22] The legal ownership of the estate had grown so complex in the prior two centuries that in the mid-1800s, the Court of Chancery was asked to rule upon the matter, ultimately defining the western half of the property as Sutton House.[24] The surrounding estates and their gardens were increasingly replaced by more dense housing developments, which altered the nature of the area.[24] In the 1890s, the two halves of the estate, which had become known as Picton House and Milford House, were acquired by St. John at Hackney Church for the creation of a men's institute.[25]

20th century[edit]

Sutton House was bought by the National Trust in the 1930s with the proceeds of a bequest. During World War II it was used as a centre for Fire Wardens, who kept watch from the roof. From the 1960s it was rented by the ASTMS Union, led by its charismatic general secretary Clive Jenkins. When the union left in the early 1980s, the house fell into disrepair.[26]

The house is the oldest surviving domestic building in Hackney. It is the second oldest in East London, Bromley Hall, a much modified house of the Tudor period, which survives next to the Blackwall Tunnel approach road, being slightly older; the latter is not open to the public.[citation needed]

Rescue[edit]

In the mid-1980s the building was squatted and used as a music venue and social centre, known as the Blue House (a decorated wall from this time is preserved within the current museum).[27] After the squatters were evicted the building's condition continued to decline. The Sutton House Society, originally known as the Save Sutton House Campaign, which was formed in March 1987, then began a campaign to rescue the building and open it to the public. Renovations were completed in 1991.[28] The building remains in use as a museum, as well as housing a café, an art gallery and a book and gift shop.[29] There is an active schools education programme at the house, together with other community programmes. Sutton House was short-listed for the 2004 Gulbenkian Prize. It is registered for the conduct of marriages.[30]

The restoration was completed in 1993 and the house fully opened in 1994.[31] The weekend of 23 and 24 June 2007 represented the 20th anniversary of the campaign to save the house, and the 500th anniversary of the birth of its commissioner, Ralph Sadler.[citation needed]

Transport[edit]

Tudor kitchen

The closest railway stations are Hackney Central station and Homerton station on the North London Line (part of the London Overground network). Many buses also stop in this area. The pedestrian route from Hackney Central passes St Augustine's Tower, a remnant of Hackney's Tudor Parish church.[citation needed]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The name is a misattribution to Thomas Sutton, founder of Charterhouse School, who was another notable Hackney resident, in the adjacent Tan House.[1] This was demolished in 1806 to allow for the extension of Sutton Place, a terrace of 16 Georgian Houses (Grade II listed).[2]

References[edit]

Morris Dance performance in the courtyard of Sutton House
  1. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 15.
  2. ^ "Hackney: Homerton and Hackney Wick". www.british-history.ac.uk. 1995.
  3. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 18.
  4. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 25.
  5. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 23.
  6. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 91.
  7. ^ a b Belcher 2004, p. 92.
  8. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 103.
  9. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 95.
  10. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 114.
  11. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 115.
  12. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 116.
  13. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 118.
  14. ^ a b Belcher 2004, p. 120.
  15. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 121.
  16. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 135.
  17. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 137.
  18. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 139.
  19. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 172.
  20. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 174.
  21. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 179.
  22. ^ a b Belcher 2004, p. 180.
  23. ^ Hackney: Education, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 148-165 accessed 26 January 2008.
  24. ^ a b Belcher 2004, p. 173.
  25. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 192.
  26. ^ Oakley, Malcolm (29 April 2014). "The History of Sutton House Hackney". East London History. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  27. ^ "Delve into the history of Sutton House". National Trust. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  28. ^ Sutton House Society Newsletter, June 2007 accessed 23 June 2007
  29. ^ "Sutton House and Breaker's Yard". National Trust. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  30. ^ "Venue hire at Sutton House | London".
  31. ^ Belcher 2004, p. 26.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Patrick Wright: A Journey Through Ruins (Radius, 1991)
  • Jennifer Jenkins and Patrick James: From Acorn to Oak Tree (Macmillan, 1994)

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sutton House.
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