Something Old, Something New

Eltham Palace was given to Edward II in 1305 by the Bishop of Durham. Methinks the Bishop was, in the king’s eyes at least, getting a bit too big for his mitre and Edward decided to pinch his palace. It wasn’t at all convenient for Durham anyway. In the 1470s Edward IV built a Great Hall and some twenty years later Henry VIII grew up here. It was trashed in the Civil War and all that remains of the palace today is the Great Hall.

It has a splendid oak hammerbeam roof – the third largest in England after Hampton Court and Westminster Hall – that was sympathetically restored in the 1930s and that takes us from something old to something new. The Courtaulds, Stephen and Virginia, bought Eltham in 1933 and built an up-to-date Art Deco house beside the Great Hall and lived there until 1944. It is a flash affair. Every bedroom had a bathroom with underfloor heating and there was enough hot water to draw twelve baths. One bathroom, used by the Courtaulds’ nephews, had a shower but it only had cold water. This picture of Virginia’s bathroom gives an indication of the bathroom bling they favoured. (The taps are gold-plated.)

The money came from Stephen’s family textile business and he had it in buckets. When they moved out in 1944 Eltham was used by the Royal Army Education Corps until 1992. Then English Heritage took charge and have restored it to look as much like it did in the Courtaulds’ time as possible. They have done a good job both inside and out. From the gardens there are views looking north across London on one side and looking across grassland on the other side. It is unexpected so close to central London.

I took all these pictures when I visited Eltham earlier this week. I hope they whet your appetite to see this most interesting place, only twenty-five minutes on the train from Victoria or Charing Cross.