By Robina Dam
Photo Credit Peter Dazeley
“This was really a family home?” asked one of the Speak Street’s group in wonder as we entered Sutton House. It was a good question. And most visitors to this National Trust property in east London probably share her feeling of amazement as you gaze at the hallways and rooms of this building that has survived for over 500 years.
Photo credit Peter Dazeley
For it was during the reign of King Henry VIII, the larger-than-life Tudor monarch, that this home was originally built by Sir Ralph Sadleir. Although he wasn’t born to an aristocratic family, Sadleir (there are also variations showing the family name as Sadler) became a close friend of Thomas Cromwell and a courtier to the King. Clearly a man of intelligence and skilled at communication, he rose through the ranks to become an MP, a secretary of state and ambassador to Scotland. Not only did he make his mark under Henry VIII, but his influence was to continue during the reigns of Edward VI and, later, Elizabeth I.
Yet it is in Hackney, neatly tucked off the busy Homerton High Street, that Sadleir left an equally important mark: giving us an insight into the home life of a wealthy Tudor family. Built of brick – which lent it the original name of ‘Bryk Place’ or ‘Bryk House’ – many of the rooms have been restored by the National Trust to give a sense of what it would have been like to live there for Sadleir’s family and dependents. In the Little Chamber, for instance, one student remarked that the wooden cradle for the Tudor baby was not really that different to those of today.
At this Art Talks visit (the monthly cultural outing organised by Speak Street), so atmospheric was Sutton House that many of the students felt they were almost transported back in time, walking through the oak-panelled Tudor dining hall with the fireplace, looking at the furnishings from the Georgian period and then at the bookcases from the Victorian era.
The house underwent many different guises after being a family home; in the early 1800s it was also a boarding school for girls (you can see some examples of girls’ shoes that were discovered). Then in the 1960s, Hackney Council used it as a trades union centre and by the 1980s, it fell into disuse, disrepair and squatters moved in, renaming it the ‘Blue House’. Although as a National Trust property, restoration work was carried out to save the house, somewhat unexpectedly they also preserved the squatters’ bedroom at the top of the house, so you get the full picture of inhabitants from 1535 to the mid 1980s. And in 2014, the Breaker’s Yard community garden was created to give a different take on a green space: a disused caravan has been planted with a range of botanicals and it’s a great addition within this curve of Homerton High Street.
For the Speak Street students who got to practise their spoken English with the volunteers (thanks to Mischon) at this month’s outing, everyone shared the same vision: that the house should survive the next 500 years too!
Sutton House & Breaker’s Yard. 2 and 4 Homerton High Street, Hackney, London E9 6JQ; open on Fridays and Sundays. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/sutton-house-and-breakers-yard
Picture credits: Peter Dazeley and Robina Dam
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