The inside of Whitehall

Whitehall was built around 1500, possibly as a farmer’s house. The building is unusual because the upper storey is jettied (projecting) at   both front and back. In each of the following five centuries additions and alterations have been made which reflect the changing lifestyles, fashions and the fortunes of the owners. It is remarkable that from 1741 until 1963 Whitehall was the home of one family – the Killicks. It was then bought by the former Borough of Sutton and Cheam. Restored and opened to the public as a historic building in 1978, it is now run by the London Borough of Sutton with the support of the Friends of Whitehall.

In the original house the hall would have been the all-purpose living room. The focal point was the fireplace and chimney, which are probably original, although they may have been greatly altered over the centuries. The room would originally have been furnished with a table and benches to sit on.

One of the original Tudor windows can still be seen, the glass in it is a modern addition; initially there was none. There are traces of shutter fittings and it is not known how it was originally covered. The window at the front is an ‘improvement’ dating from the late 16th or early 17^th century. Some of the original ironwork survives, but the window was heavily restored around 1800 when the wooden sash shutter was installed.

Leading off from the Hall is a short corridor giving access to the stairs and out through the Georgian back door into the rear garden of Whitehall

This room is the ground floor of an extension added to the house around 1800. Entry to this room is through the original back exterior wall of the house. There is an original window to the right of the door. Below this, at floor level, it is possible to see the chalk footing on which the timber frame rests. The timber-framed wall would have run across the back of the oven to the corner of the building, so you would not have been able to see the oven from this side.

The Roy Smith Gallery

This room is an extension to the original house which probably served as a scullery or wash house. The wall is made of a mixture of brick, chalk, flint and possibly other stone. The age of this wall is unknown although the thick bricks by the door cannot be earlier than the 18^th century.

This room gives a spectacular view of the external back wall of the original house. The projecting beams are the ends of the joists of the first floor and form the base of the construction of the upper part of the house. This type of construction is known as jettying and was  fashionable about 1600.

    These contain a display about the Killick family, who lived in  Whitehall for over two centuries from 1741.

We do not know the first use of this room. The original staircase came up in the position marked by the white line on the floor. This was probably removed when the present stair-tower was added – perhaps around 1550. From that time onwards this was probably a bedroom. The chimney side of the room was originally partitioned off to make a smoke bay. This was a tall narrow compartment through which the smoke rose from the fire in the kitchen to a hole in the roof. The brick chimney was inserted during the 16^th century. The timbers in the left hand corner of the room are still smoke-blackened. The cast-iron fireplace dates from the early 19^th century.

The Graffiti door was originally located in the north attic, ‘Remember’  was the last word that Charles I uttered before his execution in 1649. ‘DOM’ in the white lozenge is an abbreviation of Deo optimo maximo (to God, most great, most high). The graffiti therefore has Catholic and Royalist associations. It dates from the mid 17^th century – the time of the English Civil War.

The attics were inserted into the house some time around 1600. Until then, the rooms below were open to the roof without  any ceiling. When the attic was made, the underside of the roof was plastered to make the room a little warmer by cutting out the draught that blew between the roof tiles. The metal window fittings date from about 1600 although the woodwork and glass are replacements. The attic contains a display on Cheam School.

Much of the ceiling plaster has been removed so the roof timbers can be seen. The roof is of the crown post type, which was the normal method of construction in this area in the late middle ages. The crown post is the vertical timber at the far end of the room. It supported the collar purlin, which runs across the ceiling along the centre of the roof. There were wooden braces

between the crown post and a purlin to stop the building collapsing sideways. These were cut through when the attic floor was inserted, but the joints for them can still be seen. Crown post roofs went out of use about 1550 because they did not work well with attics, which were then becoming fashionable.

According to the census, in 1881 three masters from Cheam School, Walter W Dayman, Montague F Grignon and John K Tancock, were living in Whitehall as lodgers. This room is furnished as a schoolmaster’s study bedroom of the period.

This is the ground floor of an extension added to the back of the house in the middle of the 17^th century. It was probably the parlour - the best living room in the house. The wooden panelling around the fireplace is thought to date from the 17^th century. In the 19^th century there was panelling around the lower part of the rest of the walls, with tapestry above showing sporting subject and a ‘quaint elopement’ . The marble fireplace and the white wooden surround date from about 1740. In the latter part of the 19^th century it was used as a drawing room.