Another side of Eltham Palace …….. the Courtauld rooms

Now, I grew up with Eltham Palace, and delighted in that walk over the bridge and into the grounds.

Virginia Courtauld's bedroom

And for me, steeped in medieval and Tudor history, the attraction was always the Great Hall, which my imagination filled with the good and the great doing what the good and great always do.

Later I wondered about the more important people who toiled in the kitchens, washed the huge amounts of bed linen and attended to all the needs of the powerful.

But the buildings where all the work was done have long gone, and history did not see fit to record the lives of the servants and agricultural workers.

In the same way I chose to ignore the later years of the Palace when the monarchs and their advisors and friends had moved on, and the building was reduced to near ruin, fit only for storing hay and livestock.

Virginia Courtauld's bathroom

Nor did I really take much interest in the Courtauld’s who acquired the lease of the Palace in 1933, restoring the Great Hall and adding a new building which became their home for eleven years.

And that was my loss, because the Art Deco interior is stunning.

So, I am indebted to Jeremy Harrison who sent me a selection of photographs of some of the rooms, including Virginia Courtauld’s bedroom and bathroom.

There will be many who like me left Eltham a long time ago and may have missed the Courtauld contribution to our Palace, and so with that in mind I intend to return to the 1930s Art Deco building, courtesy of Jeremy.

Location; Eltham

Pictures; the Courtauld Rooms of Eltham Palace, 2018, from the collection of Jeremy Harrison