Whitehall is a timber-framed

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

in the centre of

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to t ...

Village,

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

. It is thought to have been a

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite material, composite building method in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called "wattle (construction), wattle" is "daubed" with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, and ...

yeoman farmer's house originally, built around 1500. It is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of National heritage site, national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The li ...

Features

The house contains details from the Georgian,

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

and

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

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 Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor architecture, Tudor royal family, royal palace, commissioned by Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII in Surrey, England, and on which work began in 1538. Its site lies in what is now Nonsuch Park on the boundary of the ...

, built nearby by

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

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

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

, for holding an impromptu council meeting for signing papers while on a hunting expedition from Nonsuch Palace. The oldest private school in the country, the

Cheam School Cheam School is a mixed preparatory school located in Headley, in the civil parish of Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire. Originally a boys school, Cheam was founded in 1645 by George Aldrich. History The school started in Cheam, Surre ...

, was founded at Whitehall in Cheam in 1645.

Ownership

It is believed that the house was the residence of the merchant, lawyer and philosopher,

James Boevey James Boevey (1622–1696) (pronounced "Boovey") was an English merchant, lawyer and philosopher of Huguenot parentage. Origins He was born in London at 6 a.m. on 7 May 1622 in Mincing Lane, in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. He was the ...

(1622–1696), from c. 1670 to his death. Between 1741 and 1963 Whitehall was home of the Killick family, and in 1816 birthplace to Captain

James Killick James Killick (26 August 181629 October 1889) was a British sea captain, shipowner and entrepreneur. He founded Killick Martin & Company with James Henry Martin. Biography Early life Captain James Killick was born in the Surrey village of Chea ...

who became Captain of the tea clipper ''Challenger'' and founded the firm

Killick Martin & Company Killick Martin and Company Ltd is a privately owned global transport and logistics company with its head office in the United Kingdom. The company can trace its origins back to 1861 when it was founded by James Killick, Captain James Killick a ...

. The house was bought by the borough in 1963 and following restoration, it was opened to the public as a historic building in 1978, and is run by the

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is an Outer London London boroughs, borough in south London, England. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to the east, ...

and the Friends of Whitehall. The museum closed in 2016 for a £1.6m refurbishment of the building. It reopened in June 2018 with improved facilities. 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."

References

External links

Friends of Whitehall website
{{coord, 51.3600, -0.2178, type:landmark_region:GB-STN, display=title Historic house museums in London Museums in the London Borough of Sutton Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Sutton Country houses in London Grade II* listed houses in London