Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace stands in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south-east London. It began as a royal residence in the 14th century and still contains the medieval Great Hall built by Edward IV in the 1470s. The hammerbeam roof in the hall is the third-largest of its kind in England. In the 1930s an Art Deco house was added to the site, creating one of the few places where medieval and modern design meet. The Crown Estate owns the palace and English Heritage manages it. The palace has royal stories from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Henry IV hosted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos here for two months in 1400–01. Henry VIII grew up at Eltham and met Erasmus in the Great Hall in 1499. The palace hosted Tudor Christmas celebrations before Greenwich Palace took its place. Later, Sir Anthony van Dyck used rooms here as a retreat in the 1630s. Visitors walk through the Great Hall with its vast timber roof and see the 15th-century bridge crossing the moat. The Art Deco interiors include an entrance hall with a glazed dome and blackbean veneer, a dining room and drawing room by Piero Malacrida de Saint-August, and Virginia Courtauld’s circular bedroom. The gardens were redesigned by the Courtaulds, who once kept a pet lemur with a special room. The palace is also known for its ghost stories and has appeared in many films.