Borough in London, England
Sutton
Henry VIII built a palace here so grand he called it Nonsuch, then a king's mistress had it pulled down to pay her gambling debts.
Key information
- County
- Greater London (historically Surrey)
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 209,000 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 43 square km
- Known for
- Nonsuch Palace and Park, Sutton United's FA Cup giant-killing, cancer research at the Royal Marsden, grammar schools
- Famous people
- Henry VIII, Prince Philip, Barbara Villiers, Sir Nicholas Carew
- Football clubs
- Sutton United, Carshalton Athletic
About Sutton
The palace that was pulled down for a gambling debt
In 1538 Henry VIII began building Nonsuch Palace on the edge of Cheam. The name means exactly what it says: there was none such anywhere else. He flattened the village of Cuddington to make room, church included, and covered the new palace in plasterwork figures from classical myth. It lasted less than 150 years. In the 1680s Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and a former mistress of Charles II, had it demolished and sold off in pieces to cover her gambling debts. Today you can walk the grounds of Nonsuch Park, with its Georgian-era Tudor Gothic mansion and wide meadows. The palace itself was only rediscovered in the 1950s, by archaeologists digging in the grass.
The day non-league Sutton beat former FA Cup winners
On 7 January 1989, Sutton United of the Conference beat Coventry City 2-1 in the FA Cup third round. Coventry had won the Cup only two seasons earlier. It remains one of the best-remembered giant-killings in the competition's history. The next round was less kind. Sutton lost 8-0 at Norwich City. In 2017 the club did it again, beating Leeds United and reaching the fifth round, where they met Arsenal at Gander Green Lane. The game is also remembered for the reserve goalkeeper, Wayne Shaw, who was filmed eating a pie on the bench. In 2021 the U's, known as the Amber and Chocolates, won promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history. Nearby Carshalton Athletic, the Robins, add a second non-league club to the borough.
Where the Wandle bubbles up
Carshalton is built around springs. They feed the village ponds, and the River Wandle starts its run towards the Thames from this part of south London. The result is one of London's more unlikely village scenes, with ducks, weeping willows and an old church beside the water. Carshalton House has an 18th-century water tower and a grotto in its grounds. Little Holland House, built in the early 1900s by the artist Frank Dickinson, is a complete Arts and Crafts home that he designed and decorated himself. A local legend links the well in All Saints' churchyard to Anne Boleyn.
Tudor timbers, orange trees and an eco-village
Beddington Park holds Carew Manor, home of the Carew family for centuries. Its great hall has a late medieval hammerbeam roof. Sir Nicholas Carew, a favourite of Henry VIII, lost his head in 1539. The Carews are also credited in local tradition with growing some of England's earliest orange trees here. Cheam has Whitehall, a timber-framed house that is one of the oldest buildings in the borough. Prince Philip was a pupil at Cheam School, which was then still in the village. The modern landmark is BedZED in Hackbridge, a housing development finished in 2002 and designed to cut energy use. Its coloured wind cowls are meant to ventilate the homes.
From Surrey market town to south London suburb
Sutton grew once the railway arrived in 1847, and it kept growing as commuters moved in. In the 1930s the London County Council built the huge St Helier estate, which brought tens of thousands of people to what had been farmland. The area was part of Surrey until 1965, when it was brought into Greater London as a borough combining Sutton and Cheam, Carshalton, and Beddington and Wallington. Many residents still think of it as Surrey in spirit. The borough has a reputation for green space and for its selective grammar schools, a rarity in London.
A cancer-research powerhouse
The Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research share a site in Sutton. Work done at the Institute here led to abiraterone, a prostate cancer drug approved for use in 2011. It is a surprising claim for a quiet suburb: some of the world's most important cancer research happens a short walk from Sutton's shopping streets.