Eltham Palace

From the 14th to the 16th centuries, Eltham was an important royal palace - a favoured residence where successive monarchs spent Christmas and hunted in the surrounding parks. Edward IV built the magnificent great hall, with its soaring hammerbeam roof and bay windows. In 1933 the site was leased to Stephen Courtauld, who constructed a modern house incorporating the great hall. The house was lavishly decorated in a variety of styles, reflecting the influence of Art Deco and contemporary ocean liners, as well as incorporating historical and classical motifs. This guide does full justice to the medieval remains, the remarkable Courtauld interiors and the delightful gardens, also laid out in the 1930s, and sheds light on the Courtaulds' glamorous, if brief, occupation of Eltham.