Type Historic house museum | Public transit access Cheam | |
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Location Cheam, London Borough of Sutton Website London Borough of Sutton website Similar The Friends of Whitehall, Manor Park - Sutton, Lumley Chapel, Secombe Theatre, Charles Cryer Theatre | ||
Whitehall is a timber-framed, Grade II* listed historic house museum in the centre of Cheam Village, Sutton, Greater London. It is thought to have been a wattle and daub yeoman farmer's house originally.
Contents
Features
The house contains details from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras. The rooms include the hall, the parlour (thought to have once been the original kitchen), the lower kitchen, the porch room, the Roy Smith art gallery (once a wash room or scullery), the Harriet Killick dressing room and the bedroom. One room has a display about Nonsuch Palace, built nearby by King Henry VIII and pulled down in the 1680s. In the garden there is a medieval well which served an earlier building on the site.
History
It is said once to have been called "The Council House," owing to its use by Queen Elizabeth I, for holding an impromptu council meeting for signing papers while on a hunting expedition from Nonsuch Palace.
Ownership
It is believed that the house was the residence of the merchant, lawyer and philosopher, James Boevey (1622–1696), from c. 1670 to his death. It was later the home of the Killick family, who remained there for more than two centuries from 1741 to 1963, when it was bought by the borough. Following restoration, it was opened to the public as a historic building in 1978, and is run by the London Borough of Sutton and the Friends of Whitehall.
The museum closed in 2016 for a £1.6m refurbishment of the building. It is intended to reopen in 2017 with improved facilities. Cllr Jill Whitehead, chair of the council’s environment and neighbourhood committee, said: “The redevelopment of the Whitehall Museum is of major significance to the borough as it is one of our oldest and most historic buildings. When the redevelopment is completed in 2017, Whitehall Museum will be the historical hub of our borough, attracting more and more people to spend time and money and learn more about our heritage.”