Whitehall was built around 1500, possibly as a farmer's house. The building is unusual because the upper story 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 fortune 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 gakk would have been the all-purpose living room. The focal point was the fireplace and the chimney which are probably original, although theu have been greatly altered over the centuries. The room would originally have been furnished with a table and benches to sit on.
 
A reproduction Tudor window can be seen to the left of the refreshment Room (an original Tudor window can be seen in the Parlour) The glass in it is a mordern addition - initially there was none. There are no traces of shutter fittings and it is not known how it was originally covered. The window at the front is an 'improvement' dating from late 16th ir early 17th century. Some of the original ironwork survives, but the window was heavily restored around 1800 when the wooden sash shutter was installed.

The use of this room has changed over the centuries and we have divided it diagonally to reflect this. In 1908 this was the dining room but originally it was probably the kitchen. At first, the smoke from the fire passed up through a plaster-lined partition known as a smoke bay, which ran across the full width of the building and extended up to the root At some point in the 16th century the existing brick chimney was inserted in the smoke bay. The heavily-restored oven to the right of the hearth dates from the 18th century. Around 1800 an extension was added to the back of the house and a new kitchen was made there, allowing this space to become a living room. The front window sash shutters may have been installed at this time.

This room is the ground floor of an extension added to the house around 1800. You entered this room through the original back exterior wall of the house. Note the original window to the right of the door. Below this, at floor level, you can 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.

This room is an extension to the original house which probably served as a scullery or wash house The wall to the left as you enter 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 18th century. Note the flints at the base of the opposite wall.

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 continuous jettying and was fashionable about 1600. The room now contains a display on Henry VIII's Palace of Nonsuch, which was nearby.

These areas contain displays 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 16th century. The timbers in the left-hand corner of the room are still smoke-blackened. The cast-iron fireplace dates from the early 19th century

The Graffiti door was originally located in Attic II, to the left as you go up the stairs. 'Remember' was the last word that Charles I allegedly uttered before his execution in 1649. 'DOM' in the white lozenge is an abbreviation of Deo optima maximo (to God, most great, most high). The graffiti therefore has Catholic and Royalist associations. It dates from the mid-17th 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 draft that blew between the roof tiles. The metal window fittings date from about 1600 although the woodwork and glass are replacements. This 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 as you enter. 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 the 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 around 1550 - because they did not work well with attics, which were then coming into fashion.

According to the census, in 1881 three masters from Cheam School, Walter W Dayman, Montague F Grignon and John K Tancock, lodged at Whitehall. This room is furnished appropriately, although the masters would have undoubtedly resided on the lower floors.

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

In the 19th century and first half of the 20th century Whitehall's garden was much larger and stretched along the whole north side of Park Lane. The well is about 21 metres (65ft) deep. The upper part is dug through sand and lined with chalk blocks. The lower part is in solid chalk. Today it is normally dry, although there was water in it after the exceptionally wet winter of 2000/1.

An archaeological excavation in 1978-9 suggested that the well was constructed about 1400 - a century older than the Tudor house, and must have served Whitehall's precursor, about which nothing is known. The well-head is a more substantial version of the last known structure and was built under a scheme sponsored by the Cheam Rotary Club. The sundial was bought by the Friends in recognition of the contribution of Bill Devereux, the first Chairman of the Friends of Whitehall.