Nonsuch Park is situated in the northern part of the Borough of Epsom & Ewell between Cheam and Ewell Village. There are a number of access points to this large site. There are two car parks off London Road and vehicle access off Ewell Road, Cheam leading to car parking facilities close to the Mansion House.  Disabled only parking is available adjacent to the Mansion House. 

Nonsuch Park is accessible to pedestrians from the main entrances off London Road and Ewell Road, Cheam.  In addition there are footpaths from Blue Gates, Beaufort Way and Ewell Bypass.  A public footpath from Holmwood Road leads across Warren Farm to Nonsuch Park.

Facilities

Nonsuch Park is a very large open space with an extensive network of both surfaced and unsurfaced paths.  For those wanting to explore a wild part of the Borough, this is an ideal site.  There are many different bird species to be found in the woodland. The park also contains the Nonsuch Mansion House where visitors can obtain refreshments at the cafe.  There is also a public toilet. 

The ground floor rooms in Nonsuch Mansion have now been refurbished and can be hired for weddings and private parties.  For more information please contact 0208 786 8124 or email events@nonsuchmansion.com

Management

Since the 1930's the freehold of much of the Park has been owned by Surrey County Council and has been managed jointly by the London Borough of Sutton and Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, and their predecessors, through Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee.  In 2008 Surrey County Council granted a long lease of its ownership jointly to Sutton and Epsom & Ewell Councils.  This legal agreement will allow the two Boroughs, through the Joint Management Committee, to deliver more effective estate management and financial planning. A Management Plan has now been prepared for the whole estate and a Maintenance Plan for the park buildings including the Nonsuch Mansion.

Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee Meetings

Three Councillors from the London Borough of Sutton and three from Epsom & Ewell Borough Council sit on the Joint Management Committee (JMC).  Meeting are held 4 times a year; the dates are agreed at the meeting in April and published on Epsom & Ewell Borough Council's municipal calendar.  The public are able to ask questions at the 15 minute informal session prior to each meeting and are also able to address the JMC for 3 minutes on an item on the agenda.  For those who wish to register to speak online please access the Link to request to speak form complete online and submit.  Alternatively, the Democratic Services Officer responsible for the JMC can be contacted via Epsom & Ewell's Contact Centre on 01372 732000 or by email on contactus@epsom-ewell.gov.uk  Please note that those wishing to address the JMC on an agenda item you must register to speak by 12 noon on the day prior to the JMC meeting.

A short history of Nonsuch Palace

King Henry VIII began to build Nonsuch Palace on 22 April 1538, the thirtieth anniversary of his accession. The King's advisors chose a site then occupied by the village of Cuddington, with its church and manor house. These were cleared away and the owners compensated. Within two months of work beginning, the name 'Nonsuch' first appears in the building accounts. The structure was perhaps substantially complete by January 1541, but the decorations of the outside walls, which were to be the fame of Nonsuch and the explanation of Henry's purpose in its creation, were still in progress five years later.

By November 1545 the work had cost £24,536 - half as much again as was spent at Hampton Court in the same period. When Henry died on 28 January 1547, the palace was still unfinished, but what little remained to be done was completed by Henry Fitzalan, twelfth earl of Arundel, after his purchase of the palace from the crown in 1556. Elizabeth I regained Nonsuch in 1592 and it remained in Royal hands, (apart from the Commonwealth), until 1670, when Charles II gave it to his erstwhile mistress, Barbara Villiers, who became Baroness Nonsuch, Duchess of Cleveland. She demolished the palace in 1682-3 and broke up the parks to sell to cover her gambling debts. The site was excavated in 1959.

Only small remnants of the Palace can be seen today.

Why is Nonsuch important?

King Henry VIII built Nonsuch and Oatlands (near Weybridge), as hunting lodges in his newly created hunting estate based on Hampton Court. He decorated the walls of Nonsuch to celebrate the birth in October 1537 of Prince Edward, the long-awaited male heir to the English throne. The decorations on the walls of the inner court were designed to show the young prince the duties he should fulfill and the pitfalls he should avoid. They covered some 900 feet on the inward and outward walls of the inner court, and were carried out, in stucco and carved slate, in the Renaissance style, in the French ltalian manner of Fontainebleau, the palace of Henry's rival Francis I, near Paris.

Nothing like this had ever been seen in England before. It was work of the highest quality, on an immense scale, celebrating the Tudors and their hope for the future. Nonsuch was created as a non-pareil, a palace without equal, at a moment when Gothic art and architecture were beginning to yield before the new styles and ideas of Renaissance.

Literature

There are a range of publications on the history, art and architecture of Nonsuch Palace and Park:-

• The fullest account of the history of Nonsuch is by John Dent; “The Quest for Nonsuch” (paperback edition, 1981)
• The latest statement on the art and architecture of the palace is by Martin Biddle, “The Stuccos of Nonsuch”, which appeared in the Burlington Magazine (July 1984). It contained full references to previous publications.
• “Nonsuch: Pearl of the Realm” a leaflet produced by Sutton Leisure Services.
• “Nonsuch Mansion: A Modern Echo” by Gerald S H Smith.

There are permanent displays about Nonsuch at Bourne Hall, Ewell; at Whitehall, Malden Road, Cheam, and a small display at the Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2 5HN.

Volunteers & Community Groups

The principal voluntary groups associated with Nonsuch Park are the 'Friends of Nonsuch' and 'Nonsuch Watch'. The 'Friends' are dedicated to preserving the Mansion House and have played an important role in recent years in helping to restore the service wing of the Mansion House, whilst Nonsuch Watch are dedicated to conserving the wildlife within the park. For more information on either of these groups, please telephone 01372 732000.