Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace, the boyhood home of Henry VIII and what a truly unique place it is. It's really two palaces in one seamlessly joined together, but you step from one world to another in the blink of an eye.
It is the first place ever that I have been instructed to put on blue plastic overshoes before entering to protect the floors. Recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as being owned by Bishop Odo the half brother of William the Conqueror. The Palace has changed hands many times, it was owned by Edward II from 1305 and Charles I was the last king to visit here. After the Civil War the place began to decay and fell into a state if decline and disrepair.

The Palace was largely rebuilt in the 1930's by Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in a magnificent Art Deco style with some incredible marquetry inlaid panels and the master bedroom has hand painted relief wall paper that would make you feel like you were sleeping in Kew gardens.
Step through a doorway into the Great Hall and you are transported back over 500 years to when it was built in 1480. The Hammerbeam roof was the third largest built at the time after Westminster Hall and Hampton Court Palace. It was lucky to survive a direct hit from a German bomb in 1940, you can still see the scorch marks on the minstrel gallery floor.

Half a dozen gardeners were hard at work preparing the grounds for the spring, when the place will be a blaze of colour. Much of the Old Palace ruins can still be seen within the grounds especially along by the sunken rose garden. With the bridge crossing the moat you can easily imagine Henry VIII as a boy fishing for the huge carp that lazily swim there.

A really remarkable place and I look forward to the spring time when the weather is warmer and the gardens are in full bloom.


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