Whitehall, Cheam
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox museum
| name = Whitehall
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| image = File:Whitehall, Cheam, London Borough of Sutton.jpg
| caption = Whitehall in Cheam
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| location = Cheam, London Borough of Sutton
| type = Historic house museum
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| publictransit = {{rint|gb|Rail}} {{rws|Cheam}}
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| website = {{URL|https://libraries.sutton.gov.uk/digital-content/sutton-heritage/whitehall-historic-house|Sutton Library Whitehall Historic House website}}
}}
{{Commons category|Whitehall, Cheam}}
Whitehall is a timber-framed 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, built around 1500.{{Cite web|title=Whitehall, Cheam, History & Visiting Information {{!}} Historic Surrey Guide|url=https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=1844|access-date=2020-09-08|website=Britain Express|language=en}} It is Grade II* listed on Historic England's National Heritage List.{{NHLE|num=1357580|desc=Whitehall|access-date=12 September 2017|mode=cs2}}
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 Henry VIII and pulled down in the 1680s. In the garden there is a medieval well which served an earlier building on the site.{{cite web |url=http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=1844 |title=Whitehall, Cheam, History & Visiting Information |website=Britainexpress.com |author=David Ross |access-date=25 October 2016}}
History
It is said once to have been called "The Council House," owing to its use by Elizabeth I, for holding an impromptu council meeting for signing papers while on a hunting expedition from Nonsuch Palace.{{cite web|title=The History of Whitehall|url=http://www.friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk/Whitehall_History.htm|access-date=25 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006124943/http://www.friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk/Whitehall_History.htm|archive-date=6 October 2014}}
The oldest private school in the country, the Cheam School, was founded at Whitehall in Cheam in 1645.{{cite web |url=https://www.cheamschool.com/528/about-cheam/history |accessdate=14 September 2021| title=A History of Cheam School |website=Cheam School }}
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.Crawley-Boevey, A. W. C., The Perverse Widow, Being Passages from the Life of Catharina, Wife of William Boevey, 1898. Biography of James Boevey, pp. 24–38
Between 1741 and 1963 Whitehall was home of the Killick family, and in 1816 birthplace to Captain James Killick who became Captain of the tea clipper Challenger and founded the firm Killick Martin & Company.{{cite book |last=MacGregor |first=David R. |date= 1986|title=The China Bird: The History of Captain Killick, and the Firm He Founded, Killick Martin & Company |publisher=Conway Maritime Press Limited|isbn=0-85177-381-8}}
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 and the Friends of Whitehall.{{cite web
|url= http://friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk/
|title= Friends of Whitehall Homepage
|access-date= 7 May 2018
}}
The museum closed in 2016 for a £1.6m refurbishment of the building. It reopened in June 2018 with improved facilities.{{cite web
|url= http://friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk/
|title= Friends of Whitehall Homepage
|access-date= 17 July 2018
}} 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."{{cite web |url=http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/news/14410570.500_year_old_museum_to_close_for___1_6m_renovation/?ref=eb |title=500-year-old Cheam museum to close for £1.6m renovation (From Sutton Guardian) |newspaper=Suttonguardian.co.uk |date=7 April 2016 |author=Anders Anglesey |access-date=25 October 2016}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk/ Friends of Whitehall website]
{{LB Sutton}}
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{{coord|51.3600|-0.2178|type:landmark_region:GB-STN|display=title}}
Category:Historic house museums in London
Category:Museums in the London Borough of Sutton
Category:Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Sutton