Most visitors to London follow the same path: the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, maybe Hampton Court on a longer trip. But in south-east London, there is a palace so unusual that it stops people in their tracks. Not because it is grand, but because it cannot quite decide which century it belongs in.
Eltham Palace sits in the leafy suburb of Eltham, about ten miles from the city centre. For most of its history, it was one of the most important royal residences in England. Then it became a ruin. Then, in the 1930s, it became something nobody expected: one of the most glamorous private homes in Britain.
A Palace With Seven Centuries of History
The site has been home to a royal residence since the 13th century. Edward II received Eltham as a gift in 1305. It became a favourite retreat for the Plantagenet and early Tudor monarchs. Edward IV built the Great Hall in 1479. Henry IV held parliament here. Henry V celebrated his victory at Agincourt with feasts in its rooms.
Henry VIII spent much of his childhood at Eltham, celebrating Christmas here every year until he acquired Hampton Court and moved on. After that, the palace’s royal chapter was essentially over.
The Great Hall still stands. Its hammer-beam roof is one of the finest surviving examples of medieval carpentry in England. Vast timber arches sweep across a room the size of a small aircraft hangar, carved and jointed with the kind of precision that still impresses engineers today. The roof has stood for more than 500 years.
Five Centuries of Neglect
After Henry VIII left, Eltham fell into long decline. By the 17th century, much of it was in ruins. The Civil War accelerated the damage. By the 18th century, the site was largely abandoned. The magnificent Great Hall was used as a barn. The grounds were given over to farming.
For centuries, one of England’s most important medieval buildings sat almost entirely forgotten. Most Londoners did not know it existed. Many still do not.
Then, in 1933, something extraordinary happened.
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The Couple Who Changed Everything
Stephen and Virginia Courtauld were wealthy, well-connected, and deeply interested in design. Stephen came from the Courtauld textile dynasty. Virginia was a socialite with a passion for the avant-garde. In 1933, they took a long lease on Eltham from the Crown.
They did not attempt to restore what had been lost. Instead, they built a new house right alongside the medieval Great Hall — and they made it extraordinary.
The new building was designed in a bold Art Deco style. The entrance hall features a marble floor in a striking geometric pattern, a curved aluminium staircase with hand-painted panels, and a gold and silver ceiling. The whole room is bathed in light from a glazed dome above. It is the kind of entrance that makes you stop walking.
The Most Glamorous Rooms in 1930s London
The Courtaulds spared nothing. Each principal room was designed by a different artist. The dining room features walls covered in large marquetry panels depicting exotic animals, birds, and plants in a lush jungle setting. The dining chairs were upholstered in pink leather.
Virginia’s bathroom is perhaps the most talked-about room in the house. It is finished in gold mosaic, onyx, and rare marble. The bath is sunken and set beneath a curved glass ceiling. A gold-plated statue of Psyche stands in one corner. The whole room looks less like a bathroom and more like a set from a 1930s Hollywood film — which is, perhaps, exactly the point.
The couple entertained extensively. Their guests included royalty, politicians, and film stars. For about a decade, Eltham was one of the most fashionable addresses in England.
The Pet That Had Its Own Heated Suite
Here is the detail that everyone remembers.
Virginia Courtauld had a pet ring-tailed lemur named Mah-Jong. The lemur had its own specially designed and heated room just off the entrance hall — lined with bamboo and fitted with a small ladder so it could climb freely through the house. The enclosure had its own little bath.
Guests reported that Mah-Jong regularly joined them for dinner. The lemur apparently had strong views about who it liked and would signal its approval or disapproval clearly to everyone present.
The lemur enclosure is still there today, restored and open to visitors. It remains one of the most unusual rooms in any English Heritage property in the country.
What the Visit Is Like Today
English Heritage manages Eltham Palace today, and it rewards the journey. You move through the Courtaulds’ lavishly decorated Art Deco rooms — the gleaming entrance hall, the exotic dining room, Virginia’s astonishing bathroom — and then step directly through a doorway into the medieval Great Hall, jumping five centuries in a single stride.
The contrast is disorienting in the best possible way. Hammer-beam timber above you, a space where feasts once stretched for hundreds of guests, and then back through the door to gold mosaic and Venetian silk blinds.
The gardens have been restored to their 1930s design: formal terraces, a sunken rose garden, and wide lawns that look out across south London. In spring, the combination of blossom and Art Deco architecture is striking.
Crucially, it is far less busy than the major central London palaces. On a weekday morning, you may find yourself almost alone in rooms that once hosted kings and Jazz Age celebrities alike. That kind of quiet access to genuine history is increasingly rare in London.
How to Get There and What to Know
Eltham Palace is in SE9. The nearest station is Eltham, on the Southeastern line from London Bridge or Charing Cross — about 20 minutes by train. It is a short walk from the station to the palace entrance.
English Heritage members visit free. Non-members pay an admission fee. The palace is open most days from Wednesday to Sunday; check the English Heritage website for current hours before visiting, as they vary by season.
If you are planning a trip to London and want somewhere genuinely unexpected, Eltham belongs on your list. Our London trip planning guide can help you build an itinerary that gets beyond the obvious.
London has more overlooked royal history than most people realise. If Eltham leaves you wanting more, another forgotten palace just a few miles away in Greenwich tells a completely different story. The city rewards those who look past the obvious.
A Building That Cannot Be Pinned Down
Eltham Palace does not fit neatly into any category. It is medieval and modern, austere and extravagant, English and entirely international in its tastes. It is the kind of place that makes you question what you thought you knew about London — and about the kind of lives that were lived here quietly, away from the famous addresses.
Walk through the Great Hall once and you understand why Edward IV chose to build it. Walk through Virginia’s bathroom once and you understand why the 1930s felt like anything was possible. Stand in the garden and look at both buildings side by side and you get something rarer: the feeling that history is genuinely alive, not just preserved behind glass.
Eltham has been surprising people for 700 years. It is still very good at it.
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