Sutton House

Sutton House is one of London's last Tudor houses and the oldest home in Hackney, a red-brick mini-manor built in 1535 on Homerton High Street for Sir Ralph Sadleir, a fixer for Thomas Cromwell who by 1540 was Secretary of State to Henry VIII. Over five centuries it has adapted to everything the East End threw at it, housing merchants, a Victorian school, a church institute in the First World War, trades union offices in the 1960s and 70s and a punk squat in the 1980s, before the National Trust restored it. Inside are oak-panelled chambers, a great hall and robust fireplaces around a quiet courtyard; outside, the Breaker's Yard turns a former car scrapyard into an award-winning pocket park with a two-storey caravan, and a free photography exhibition with Future Hackney documents local lives. Reviewers praise the volunteer guides, several of them long-time Hackney residents, and the shelves of second-hand books for sale. Tips from visitors: it opens on limited days, so check before travelling, book the guided tour ahead as places are few, and walk in five minutes from Hackney Central through St John's Churchyard Gardens.