Lumley Chapel

The Archbishop of Canterbury acquired the manor of Cheam in 1018, and it is thought that the church was founded soon after this date. It was dedicated to Saint Dunstan, an earlier Archbishop of Canterbury. A south aisle was added to the church in the 12th century. In 1580 John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley inherited the nearby Nonsuch Palace through his marriage to Jane Fitzalan, daughter of Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. During the 1590s Lumley converted the church into a memorial chapel for himself and his two wives. In the early 18th century the church consisted of a chancel with a south chapel, a nave with a south aisle, and a west tower. Later in the century, possibly in 1746, the…

The chapel is the oldest standing building in the London Borough of Sutton. It is constructed in partly roughcast rubble stone and brick. It has a tiled roof. The east window dates from the 15th century and has three lights. In the south wall is the blocked arcade that formerly led into the south chapel. In the north wall are fragments of a blocked window from the Saxon or the early Norman era. Inside the church the walls are plastered. Along the top of the north and south walls is a frieze decorated with fruit and foliage. Over this is a cornice, rising from which is a plastered barrel vault decorated with ribs and pendants.