Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace is a historic house in southeast London that combines a preserved medieval royal Great Hall with a 1930s Art Deco house and gardens. The site is most famous for the juxtaposition of the 15th-century Great Hall and the modernist mansion created for the Courtauld family in the 1930s.

Interior highlights include the Great Hall’s timber framing and the Art Deco reception rooms, with original 1930s fittings and decorative schemes. The grounds include formal gardens and a sunken Italian garden laid out as part of the 20th-century remodelling.

The medieval component dates to the late 15th century and was part of a royal palace complex; the 20th-century house was commissioned and fitted out by Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in the 1930s, who employed architects and designers to create a modern residence adjoining the historic hall. The property has been conserved and is open to the public under heritage management.

Eltham Palace sits in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London, a short distance from Eltham town centre and within greater London transport connections.

• Dual heritage: The site combines a preserved late-medieval Great Hall with an interwar Art Deco house, making it notable for the contrast of 15th-century and 20th-century design.
• Visit logistics: Managed as a historic house and grounds with timed entry and guided routes through principal rooms and the Great Hall.

What to See #

• Great Hall: A late-medieval Great Hall dating to the 15th century, preserved as a freestanding timber-framed hall that originally belonged to a royal palace on the site.
• Art Deco house: A 1930s Art Deco mansion created by Stephen and Virginia Courtauld with interior fittings and decorative schemes in the 1930s modernist style.
• Gardens: Formal gardens and a sunken Italian garden laid out during the 1930s restoration, now part of the public visit route.