In the middle of Hackney, where Homerton High Street becomes Urswick Road, stands Sutton House, a red-brick Tudor manor. It’s hard to believe that a building like this exists in one of London’s most built-up boroughs, but in the 16th century, Hackney was more of a rural retreat: a village, so to speak, dotted with grand houses belonging to the noblemen of the city.

Sutton House, or ‘Bryk Place’ as it was then known, was built in 1535 by Ralph Sadleir, a protégé of Thomas Cromwell and, in due course, a highly successful courtier. Since then, the building has undergone several renovations, but if you step out into the central courtyard, you’ll see that a Tudor window and some of the original bricks still survive today.

Back inside, the rooms have distinctly different decorative styles. This is to give visitors an idea of how the house would have looked at each stage in its history. After all, it’s seen a long line of occupants over the years: merchants, silk weavers, schoolmistresses, fire wardens, and in the 1980s, a group of squatters, one of whom was invited back to recreate his old room.

Nowadays, Sutton House is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public three days a week. Visitors can choose either to explore at their own leisure or to book onto a guided tour at no extra cost. Those who go for the second option will be entertained with quirky anecdotes and, if they’re lucky, ghost stories!