Sutton House

OVERVIEW

A red-brick Tudor house on Homerton High Street built in 1535 for Sir Ralph Sadleir, Principal Secretary of State to Henry VIII, and afterwards home to merchants, a girls' school, a trade union and, in the 1980s, squatters. The National Trust restored it and opened it in 1994. It is Hackney's best-known haunted house and the Trust has run investigations and ghost evenings there.

HISTORY

John Machell, a wool merchant, bought the house in 1550; his son's wife Frances died there on 11 May 1574 giving birth to twins. Sadleir's Tudor panelling and painted staircase survive under the later layers.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The White Lady, taken to be Frances Machell, is seen in the oldest rooms; a Lady in Blue in the exhibition room; and dogs are heard howling in the empty house at night, taken to be John Machell's hounds. The Hackney Citizen and the Trust's own events carry the accounts; they are the house's tradition and are recorded as such.

VISITING

National Trust opening hours; café and garden. The Trust runs occasional evening events.