Eltham Palace, London

Eltham Palace and Gardens is an English Heritage property in London that has been on my to visit list for a very long time. Finally last October I set aside a day to visit. I travelled via train from London Bridge to Mottingham (about 20 minutes) then it was an easy 15 minute or so walk from the station to the Palace. As an English Heritage member admission was free. From the entrance with the car park (there is another entrance around the corner) you walk along a path by the side of the gardens until you’re crossing over the bridge and the moat as it was in the 14th century.

The interesting thing about the house is its duality. I wanted to visit because of its 1930s Art Deco interior but before my visit I hadn’t appreciated that it had a history dating back much further than that. It was, as its name should have clued me in, originally a royal palace – given to Edward II in 1305 as a moated house. It was revamped by Edward IV in the 15th century and eventually fell out of use in favour of Hampton Court – though Henry VIII did play at Eltham when he was a child.

However the focus of the first part of the self-guided tour is the 1930s. You begin in the entrance hall before moving up the staircase to the left where you watch a very interesting short video going over some of the history of the building, after which you receive your audioguide. I don’t think you absolutely have to take the guide but I would highly recommended it, it gave a lot of detail to each room and without it you would be a bit lost as there aren’t really any explanatory signs in the rooms themselves.

The house was the brainchild of Stephen and Virginia Courtauld. Stephen came from a wealthy textile manufacturing family and Virginia was a half-Hungarian half-Italian he met while mountaineering in the Alps. They were famous for their lavish parties – many held at Eltham Palace – and their philanthropy, funding scholarships and the creation of the Courtauld Collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. (It was his younger brother who founded the Courtauld Institute of Art in London).

The house had some beautiful rooms all designed with state of the art technology and cutting edge Swedish design. Some of my favourites included Virginia’s bathroom,

the Venetian room (where the intro video is played),

and Virginia’s bedroom.

Just down the corridor from the entrance hall you came across the medieval part of the palace which you get a great view of from the Minstrels Gallery but you can also go down to the ground floor where you can get a closer look at the stained glass.

From here it was time to explore the gardens on what was an astonishingly hot and sunny day for early October. There are over 19 acres to explore and I certainly didn’t walk around everywhere but I did spend a good amount of time there before heading to the cafe for a late lunch. The gardens are laid out on two levels and you can still see the remains of the medieval palace.

There is also a large rock garden which incorporates the moat, at least part of which is full of rather large fish and a curious heron that was equally as interested in the fish.

The gardens also give you a very impressive view of the London skyline.

The gardens were beautiful and definitely in keeping with the house itself.