The Park & Grounds.

The History of Nonsuch Palace.

Begun in 1538, the greatest of Henry VIII's building enterprises took nine years to build & was completed at a cost of at least £ 24,000, a phenomenal amount at the time. It was built in Surrey after Henry destroyed the church & village of Cuddington, near Epsom. The basic plan was inner & outer courtyards, each with a fortified gatehouse. Nonsuch was richly decorated & ornate to compete with rival Francis I's Chambord. The northern side was a more medieval-style fortification, while the southern face had the Renaissance decoration intended only for display. The south side had tall eight-sided towers at each end. The palace passed to Edward VI upon the death of Henry, & then to Mary, who sold Nonsuch to the Earl of Arundel. Later, the palace returned to the Crown under Elizabeth with the Earl's son-in-law sold the palace to her.

Nonsuch passed in & out of royal hands through the 17th century & was eventually broken up to be incorporated into new buildings. No trace of the palace remains on its site now, but remnants have been excavated & recovered are on display in various locations, including the British Museum.
Nonsuch was Henry VIIIs last & most fantastic palace. It stood on the west side of Nonsuch Park & is often confused with Nonsuch Mansion on the east side of the park. The Palace was begun on the 22 April 1538, at the start of the 30th year of Henry's reign & six months after the birth of his son, the male heir that he had so long desired & believed that he needed to secure the future of the Tudor dynasty. The palace was intended as a triumphal celebration of the power & the grandeur of Henry VIII & the Tudor dynasty, but it was also a product of the difficulties & insecurities of the reign, which Henry believed were now resolved.

The overall plan of Nonsuch Palace was not untypical of a large house of the period, despite the unique nature of the building. It was arranged around two main courtyards. The outer one was built of brick & stone, with a turreted gatehouse in typical late mediaeval style. This was, at the least, one of the most extraordinary buildings in 16th century Europe.

Nonsuch Palace was substantially complete when Henry died in January 1547. The Palace remained in royal hands under Edward VI, but in 1556 Queen Mary sold it to Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel. He may have been responsible for completing the work & for laying out the gardens. He died in 1580, & left the Palace to his son-in-law, John, Lord Lumley, who was a great collector & built a major library in the palace & also had a large collection of paintings. He made an major additions to the garden, which was one of the most important in Elizabethan England. Lumley was forced to sell the palace to Queen Elizabeth to settle a debt.
James I inherited the palace on Elizabeth's death in 1603. He granted it to his queen, Anne of Denmark, & the palace was also used as a residence by his son Henry, Prince of Wales. When Charles I came to the throne in 1625, he again gave the palace to his wife, Henrietta Maria. His reign ended in the Civil War, which saw a skirmish between Royalists & Roundheads near the Banqueting House & the occupation of the palace by the victorious Parliamentary force. After the Civil War, Parliament sold the palace but when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 the palace returned to Henrietta Maria. She died, in 1669, Charles II gave the palace to his former favourite mistress, Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine in 1670. By 1679 had gambled herself badly into debt & in 1682 Charles II allowed her to demolish the building & sell the materials to raise money. She was also allowed, probably much more profitably, to dispose of the Great & Little Parks of Nonsuch. The building was broken up & the materials were carted away to make new buildings in Epsom & elsewhere. There is no trace of the building above ground but the site was excavated by Martin Biddle in 1959. The palace straddled the drive which runs into the park from the Ewell Road Gate. The site is marked by three granite bollards & in the summer, by the mown area of grass.

The Nonsuch Mansion.

Nonsuch Park, Ewell Road, Cheam, Surrey, SM3 7DZ

Nonsuch Mansion stands on the eastern side of Nonsuch Park. It is probably on the site of the Keepers Lodge, which was attached to Henry VIIIs fabulous, but long dismantled Palace of Nonsuch.
The house was built in 1731-43 by Joseph Thompson & bought by Samuel Farmer in 1799. He employed Jeffry Wyatt to rebuild it in a Tudor Gothic style in 1802-6. Farmer was succeeded by his grandson in 1838 under whom the gardens became famous. In 1937 it was sold to a group of local authorities who still manage it. It has a chalk & flint chequerboard garden wall which may be of Tudor origin. The service wing is opened by the Friends of Nonsuch on some afternoons.

Situated in the lovely grounds of Nonsuch Park, the Mansion is a Grade II listed building of historic interest. Once a family home, the house now belongs jointly to Epsom & Ewell Council & the London Borough of Sutton.

Currently The Nonsuch Mansion is used for ceremonies & receptions such as weddings. There is a variety of room sizes to suit small, medium or large occasions. Rooms can be hired individually for the ceremony only or together to accommodate a reception afterwards.