Sutton Place Hackney
Encyclopedia
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
. It links Homerton High Street with St John's Church Gardens, in Hackney
Hackney Central
Hackney Central is the central district of the London Borough of Hackney in London, England. It comprises the area roughly surrounding, and extending north from Mare Street. It is situated north east of Charing Cross...
. The Georgian terrace
Georgian era
The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...
of 1790-1806, is Grade II listed as a whole, together with the villas on the north side of the street which date from 1820, and is sited in the conservation area around the gardens of St John-at-Hackney
Church of St John-at-Hackney
The Church of St John at Hackney is situated in the London Borough of Hackney. It was built in 1792, in an open field, north east of Hackney's medieval parish church, of which only St Augustine's Tower remains...
. The street replaced Church Path, an historic path connecting the villages of Homerton
Homerton
Homerton is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south.-Origins:...
and Hackney.
Description
On the south side, is a stock-brick three storeyed terrace of GeorgianGeorgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
houses built by Charterhouse. The terrace was likely to have been designed by its inhouse surveyor, William Pilkington, between 1790 and 1806. It was then leased to William Collins in 1809. The terrace replaced a school in the large medieval Tan House (occupied by Thomas Sutton
Thomas Sutton
Thomas Sutton was an English civil servant and businessman as well as being the founder of Charterhouse School. He was the son of an official of the city of Lincoln, and was educated at Eton College and probably at Cambridge...
in Tudor times
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
) which occupied the site at the east end of the terrace - next to Sutton House. Sutton Place was constructed along the line of the short path across Church field, connecting Upper Homerton
Homerton
Homerton is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south.-Origins:...
with the parish church of St John-at-Hackney
Church of St John-at-Hackney
The Church of St John at Hackney is situated in the London Borough of Hackney. It was built in 1792, in an open field, north east of Hackney's medieval parish church, of which only St Augustine's Tower remains...
.
The terrace is 'soot washed'. This was a technique whereby the entire frontage was given a coating of soot, before fine white lining was applied to the darkened motar between the bricks. This gave the appearance of much finer brickwork. The terrace appears uniform, but numbers 1 & 2 are the earlier and finer houses, with 'barrel' backs. Wrought iron railings and a light well separate the frontages from the street, with under pavement cellars for each house. It is a condition of the listing that external decoration must be black. This emphasises the austere look of the terrace.
Georgian life
As many as three servants would live and work in the basement of each house, hauling coal from the cellars to the grates in the upper house. The basements would have consisted of a small sitting (and sleeping) room, together with a kitchen at the back; with all the household cooking performed on a small range. Because this was such a small space, many of the washing and cooking activities took place in a range of small sheds at the rear of the buildings.At the rear of the houses are long gardens leading to a nightsoil path. This was for the removal of waste from the houses, which would be collected by cart. Main sewerage appears to have arrived with the culverting of Hackney Brook
Hackney Brook
The Hackney Brook is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It crossed the northern parts of the current London boroughs of Hackney and Islington, emptying into the River Lea at Hackney Wick, with its source in Holloway.- Course of the River :...
in about 1847, which is reputed to run in a large cast iron tube through the back gardens, before turning South down Isabella Road to join the main sewer network at Old Ford.
Lead was stolen from the roof, of one of the houses under construction, on the night of 22 December 1808. The perpetrator was sentenced to be publicly whipped in Hackney Village
Hackney Central
Hackney Central is the central district of the London Borough of Hackney in London, England. It comprises the area roughly surrounding, and extending north from Mare Street. It is situated north east of Charing Cross...
and to one year in the House of Correction.
At each end of the terrace were two yards, for carriages and horses. The one adjacent to Sutton House has been acquired by the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
and long term plans include the creation of an Elizabethan herb garden.
Hackney Grammar school
The Hackney Proprietary Grammar school opened in 1830, on the north side of the street, adjacent to St John's churchyard, providing education for 130 boys. The Madras system was used, whereby elder boys were appointed monitors to take responsibility for the younger boys. The school caused controversy for the number of non-conformist teachers and for a notorious ban on the sons of shopkeepers. By 1840, the school had declined to an entry of 50 pupils, and was amalgamated with the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
Grammar school (on a site now occupied by a part of the Pembury Estate). The school building became a private building known as Sutton Lodge, and by the 1950s was demolished to extend the adjacent Metal Box factory.
Later use
The north side of the street consists of villas built in 1820, also listed. There are two small blocks of flats at either end of the north side, filling in gaps in the terrace, but in keeping with the villas.The street survives intact, as it remained in the ownership of Charterhouse into the 20th century. Then it passed to the Metal Box Company, who developed a factory behind the buildings on the north side. The (unsightly) office block on the north-western corner was built to service the factory, on the site of the former Hackney Grammar School. The core of the Metal Box site became the award winning Sutton Square, private development.
Originally, the street was occupied by wealthy merchants and gentry, including at least one mayor of Hackney and the exiled German poet and revolutionary Ferdinand Freiligrath
Ferdinand Freiligrath
Ferdinand Freiligrath was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator.-Biography:Freiligrath was born in Detmold, Principality of Lippe. His father was a teacher. He left a Detmold gymnasium at 16 to be trained for a commercial career in Soest...
. However in the early 20th century was leased to institutions, including one for the 'training of domestic servants' (a M.A.B.Y.S. home, Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants
Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants
The Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants was a voluntary organisation of middle- and upper-class women, founded by Jane Nassau Senior, Britain's first female civil servant, and social reformer Henrietta Barnett in 1875...
, actually an attempt to save poor girls from a life of prostitution). They fell into multiple occupation, and might have been demolished, but for their listing. From the 1970s individual private owners have endeavoured to restore the houses. A notable recent resident was Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, and Sutton Place, has itself appeared in the film of Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's The Hours
The Hours (film)
The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, and starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris. The screenplay by David Hare is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Michael Cunningham....
.
Unusually, the street retains the original practice of sequentially numbering adjacent buildings (rather than grouping evens and odds). A Victorian postbox remains at the Homerton
Homerton
Homerton is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south.-Origins:...
end of the street.