Visit Sutton, London Places

Welcome to Visit Sutton, London Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Sutton, London

  

Sutton, London Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Sutton, London

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Sutton, London history

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Origin of the name

The placename Sutton is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudtone. It is formed from Old English ‘sūth’ and ‘tūn’, meaning ‘south farm’

Pre 1700

Sutton was recorded as Sudtone in a charter of Chertsey Abbey believed to date from the late 7th century. The 1086 Domesday Book records Sutton as spanning about 800 acres, and having about 30 houses and 200 people. In 1538 it was sold to King Henry VIII and granted to Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington.

1700 to 1900

Two turnpike roads, which met at Sutton, were built in 1755. Toll bars for the roads were originally located by the Cock Hotel, a coaching inn at the junction. Sutton’s population more than doubled between 1851 and 1861, and the village became a town.

20th century

By 1901, the town’s population had reached 17,223 as further housing was built and the High Street was developed. Sutton Adult School and Institute opened in 1910 in a large Edwardian building in Benhill Avenue. The adult school is said to have had the best premises in the UK. During World War II bombing was not as heavy as central London – 434 bombs in total were dropped on Sutton and Cheam.

Sutton, London culture & places

Sutton has a range of public art, a large library, a music venue and a cinema and theatre. Sutton is a hub for filming in south-west London.

Sutton Central Library’s Art Gallery Space

Sutton Central Library’s Art Gallery aims to provide residents with a wide range of contemporary art, heritage and history experiences. The gallery space is available for hire to professional artists, collectives and non-profit groups. Entrance to the gallery and access to the exhibition is free for all members of the public, except for specific events.

Imagine festival of arts

Imagine festival of arts was launched in 2006 and has since gained Arts Council England funding. It is the first time the Imagine festival has been supported by the Arts Council.

Public art

Sutton town centre contains six main works of public art, as well as several other works. Of the main works, three are murals and three are sculptures. There is a large town centre mosaic measuring 9 metres (30 ft) high and 5 metres (16 ft) wide covering the whole of a three-storey wall in the town square near the Waterstone’s bookshop. One of the largest examples of wall art in Britain, it was commissioned by the London Borough of Sutton to celebrate the borough’s heritage. Created by artists Gary Drostle and Rob Turner, the mosaic was made from vitreous ceramic tesserae (small tiles made of glass and clay), and put in place in 1994. It was designed by Rob Turner, and shows several aspects of Sutton’s heritage and local history. The centre-piece is the depiction of Henry VIII’s palace at Nonsuch. A plaque describing the panels was installed in 2011, and unveiled by Councillor Graham Tope, who said: This beautiful mosaic has been a much-loved feature of our High Street for the past 17 years…..I hope this plaque will help [people] to appreciate it even more.” There is a large mural in Wellesley Road, about a hundred yards south of the railway station. It was created by the street artist, Eva Mena, who is from Bilbao, Spain and a leading practitioner in the urban art movement. The mural dates from 2008, and was completed in three days. It was commissioned by the owner of a cleaning firm keen to promote local art, and depicts an image of Erykah Badu, the American singer-songwriter. The painting covers the entire side wall of Indepth House, a small office building occupied by the firm. The twin towns mural is a set of seven individual paintings inset within seven mock window frames on the side of a Victorian commercial building at the junction of the High Street with Sutton Court Road. The paintings depict scenes of the London Borough of Sutton and its four European twins: Gagny, a suburb of Paris; Gladsaxe in Copenhagen; Minden in Germany; and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin. The paintings were designed and painted on to plywood by public artists, Gary Drostle and Rob Turner and were unveiled in 1993 on the 25th anniversary of Sutton’s twinning with Wilmersdorf. The five twins are each painted with their heraldic shield above images of their key features. Each twin also has its own plant to symbolise environmental awareness; for Sutton this is a beech tree, from which Carshalton Beeches in the borough gets its name. The Millennium Dial armillary was dedicated to the town in the year 2000 by the Rotary Club. It is in the form of an historical timepiece, and it serves three purposes: first, to tell the time; secondly, to commemorate time through various inscriptions including the Rotary motto “Service Above Self” and distances to nearby areas such as Kingston upon Thames; and thirdly, to commemorate the work which the Rotary Club has done. The armillary is a popular feature of the town, and it continues to provide a focus for the town centre. It marks not just the new millennium but also the central part that the Rotary has played in the welfare of Sutton since 1923. It was originally installed in the former “Millennium Garden”, but was slightly re-positioned in 2011 to the edge of the central square, in front of the Waterstones bookshop. The Messenger statue is a sculpture in bronze with very dark patination completed by David Wynne, OBE in 1981 of a large horse and rider. The horse, with a slightly raised left leg, looks towards the railway station. The rider, seated bareback, raises his left hand in the air above his head and his right hand to his mouth, as if calling. It is fully life-size and mounted on a 7-foot plinth of marble and granite slabs. The total height is 150 inches. The statue was commissioned by the then Business Press International Ltd, and upkeep of the work now falls to Reed Business Information, who occupy Quadrant House. It was a major commission for the sculptor, which took four years from his first idea and inspiration, through to roughing out, refining and foundry to the final unveiling and installation. The company wanted him to illustrate its fundamental business, communication, but to convey the idea of it, rather than simply represent it in a completely obvious way. The statue is located by the main entrance to Quadrant House, adjacent to Sutton station. Transpose 2002 is a sculpture by Michael Dan Archer, located at the junction of Carshalton Road and Langley Park Road, about 250 yards from the town’s historic central crossroads. It is 7 metres (23 feet) in height, 1.5 metres (5 feet) in width and 1.5 metres in depth, and made of Chinese granite and stainless steel. It is composed of a steel blade-like structure next to a granite form. The blade contains a grid allowing the sun to shine through on to the granite. The sculpture was commissioned jointly by Chartwell Land, B&Q and the London Borough of Sutton. As its name suggests, it dates from 2002. Archer says his sculptures “primarily invoke the massiveness and physicality of stone and its relationship to architecture, humanity and landscape”. The design, location and dimensions of Transpose 2002 all combine to make it a significant landmark for those entering Sutton town centre from an easterly direction along Carshalton Road. Sutton Council is planning to create a large mural in the town centre celebrating diversity in the borough. Using local artists, it will be installed on the wall of Sutton College on St Nicholas Way. Completion is expected in the Summer of 2021.

Rainbow crossing

Sutton one of fewer than ten London boroughs to have permanent LGBT+ rainbow crossings. In mid-2020, a permanent rainbow pedestrian crossing in honour of the borough’s LGBT+ community was installed in St. Nicholas Way, adjacent to the Sutton Civic Centre.

Transgender crossing

In May 2021 the country’s first transgender pedestrian crossing was painted in Sutton town centre. Installation timed to coincide with International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

Literary facilities

Sutton Library is situated close to the top of the town, near St Nicholas Church. Opened in 1975, it was extensively refurbished in 2004 to meet changing customer needs. It was the first public library to appoint a library writer-in-residence.

Sutton Life Centre

The Sutton Life Centre is an £8 million facility designed to improve life chances for younger people and encourage good citizenship. The centre’s key feature – The Lifezone – is a virtual street, a room with giant projection screens on all walls using film-set technology. It aims to provide an “immersive learning environment”

Theatre and cinema

The Secombe Theatre was opened by Sir Harry, who lived in Sutton for over 30 years. The theatre was created in 1984 out of a former Christian Science church building dating from 1937. Sutton Council requested bids to take over the running of the theatres. In August 2016 the trust went into administration and the theatre closed permanently.

Media

The Return of Mr Bean was filmed in Sutton High Street. Scenes for the Hollywood film Black Sea were shot outside Sutton Grammar School in 2013. Episodes of The Bill and Phoneshop were filmed in a vacant shop unit.

Music

The Rolling Stones were first spotted at the Red Lion public house (now the Winning Post) in Sutton High Street. It was at the pub that Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, on 23 January 1963, became permanent members of the band. Sutton Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1946 and has given an average of three concerts every season.

Sutton, London economy & business

Health and research

The Royal Marsden Hospital has a longstanding presence in Sutton, on a site at the southern end of the town acquired in 1962. The Institute of Cancer Research is located next to the hospital, and in 2012 the Institute’s Centre for Molecular Pathology opened. The ‘London Cancer Hub’ will bring together 10,000 scientists, and clinical and support staff and provide space for biotech and pharma companies to carry our research and development.

Town centre regeneration

Sutton Point will include a hotel, apart-hotel, apartments (with a car club), a health club, shops, restaurants and office space. Subsea 7 has expanded in Sutton, making it the site of its new world headquarters. Sutton town centre has been designated one of the first ten Heritage Action Zones by Historic England.

Retailing

Sutton High Street runs for nearly a mile from Sutton Green to Sutton station. It is London’s sixth most important retail centre and attracts shoppers from a wide area. The oldest retail business currently operating in Sutton, Pearson Cycles, dates from the 1860s.

Sutton, London geography / climate

Geology, soil and elevations

Sutton is one of several towns located on a narrow bed of Thanet Sands which extends from Croydon in the east, to Epsom in the west. Elevations in and around the town range from 115 metres (377 ft) AOD in Belmont to 23 metres (75 ft) in Sutton Common, at the start of the Pyl Brook stream.

Location

Sutton has formed part of Greater London since 1965. “Sutton, Surrey” is often used for addresses in the town, Surrey being the former Postal County (and the historic or traditional county) in which it lies. There is another, much smaller Sutton in Surrey, near Dorking.

Green spaces

Sutton Green is at the northern end of Sutton High Street, near All Saints Church. It is bordered by a row of detached Victorian villas to the west, the High Street to the east and Bushey Road to the south. Manor Park was opened by the chairman of the then Sutton Urban District Council in 1914, and its fountain was added in 1924–1925.

You can visit Sutton, London places with Walkfo Sutton, London to hear history at Sutton, London’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Sutton, London has 95 places to visit in our interactive Sutton, London map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Sutton, London, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Sutton, London places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Sutton, London & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 95 audio facts unique to Sutton, London places in an interactive Sutton, London map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Sutton, London Places Map
95 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Sutton, London historic spots	Sutton, London tourist destinations	Sutton, London plaques	Sutton, London geographic features
Walkfo Sutton, London tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Sutton, London

  

Best Sutton, London places to visit

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Sutton, London has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Sutton, London’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Sutton, London’s information audio spots:

Nonsuch Palace Nonsuch Palace was a Tudor royal palace built by Henry VIII in 1538 . It stood from 1538 to 1682–83 . Its site lies in what is now Nonsuch Park on the boundaries of the borough of Epsom and Ewell .

St Mary’s Church, Ewell The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin, Ewell is the civic church of the borough of Epsom and Ewell in the county of Surrey in South East England.

Visit Sutton, London plaques