The former Sutton home of the famous ice cream magnate Thomas Wall has been put on the market for a cool £475,000.

Christies estate agents have been instructed to sell the Blythewood property which was bought with early proceeds from the Wall’s firm.

Thomas Wall moved to 12 Worcester Road in 1897 as he transformed his small family meat pie business into a sausage empire.

He lived there until his death 33 years later, by which time the world-renowned Wall’s ice cream was enjoying sweet success.

Today Blythewood has been modernised into an upmarket three-bedroom property, with a secluded garden, glass-fronted ground floor rooms and a double garage. Only a brown heritage plaque bears testimony to its significance.

Richard Killoughery, a sales manager at Christies in Cheam, said: “Trading in sausages and pork pies, Wall built the family business into a national one.

“His long-held concern about the number of staff he had to lay off each summer, due to the British public’s aversion to eating pork during the summer months, led to the birth of the now famous Wall’s ice cream brand, which today is a multi-million pound operation owned by Unilever.”

The big blue W logo and the advertising slogan, “Stop me and buy one,” announced Wall’s ice cream to an adoring public.

In an era before refrigerators became regular fixtures, customers were told their ice creams bricks would keep for “up to two hours” while wrapped in newspaper.

Wall, born in 1846, refused simply to get fat on the profits of his business. A committed philanthropist, he financed several local education centres and founded Sutton Adult School, which has since been developed into the ground of Sutton United FC.

For more information about the Blythewood sale, call Christies on 020 8770 1625 or go to christies-cheam.co.uk

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