That remarkable painting of Eltham Palace .........

I like this water colour of Eltham Palace by my old friend Peter Topping.

The painting, 2025

Like many people I continue to be fascinated by Eltham Palace along with the Tudor Barn, its more humble companion just down the road.

So, if you grew up in Well Hall and were interested in history then these two old buildings were special.

Back in the 1960s the Palace was only open on Thursdays and Sundays which meant timing a visit to the school holidays or a Sunday.

But admission was free and from May to October the doors were open from 11am to 7pm and in the winter from 11am till 4, which gave plenty of scope to wander the Great Hall and indulge in shock and awe, made all the more so when I discovered the Palace's history and its place in Shakespeare's plays.

The guide book, 1958

All of which meant I could often be found on Thursday afternoons standing below the great wooden roof letting my imagination roll away.

Later still as I became less interested in the doing's of royalty and more in the lives of those who worked to keep the posh people happy I started to explore what it meant to be a kitchen servant, a laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house.

Not an easy piece of research but I was helped by a delightful little book from the Ministry of Works published in 1958 for one shilling which acted as the "Official Guide-book [to] Eltham Palace Kent" 

Not that the author "D.E. Strong, M.A., D.Phil, formerly Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monument" gave any time in his description to our kitchen servant,  laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house, but in the back of the book there are two plans based on the work of John Thorpe, who was the Elizabethan surveyor.

And there amongst all the important state rooms are the places that kept the Palace working, from the Slaughter House, Cole House, Pastry, Spicery and "My Lord's Butry"

The plan, 1958, based on the two Elizabethan plans

Too which I can add that series of fine line drawings of the Palace in a state of decay in the 18th century when it was a home to cows and other live stock which appear from time to time on the blog.

All of which is a far cry from Peter's painting made all the more remarkable because he is from Preston, has lived in Manchester for half a century and only knows of the palace's existence because I wax lyrical about the place on cold winter evenings in the Horse and Jockey, that Inn on the Green.

And just as Peter left Preston, I left Well Hall for Manchester in 1969,but still miss Eltham, its Palace and the Progress Estate where I gew up.

So much so that everyso often Peter comes up with another painting of home.* 

Painting; Eltham Palace, Peter Topping www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Pictures; Plan and front cover from Eltham Palace Kent, Ministry of Works Official Guide-book, 1958

*Painting Well Hall and Eltham, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Painting%20Well%20Hall%20and%20Eltham

Mr. Topping paints Eltham Palace …..

 Now, I maintain, and I maintain most strongly that you can never have enough paintings of Eltham Palace.

Growing up in Well Hall with the Pleasaunce and the Tudor Barn, that magnificent medieval Palace was always a counter attraction.

True in the 1960s you could only gain access on a Thursday but that was enough and as a kid with a vivid imagination my day would be spent with a host of kings, and barons down to the cooks and servants who waited on. 

Even then I was well aware that had I been in the Palace in the Middle Ages I wouldn’t be giving the orders, instead it would be my task to fetch, obey and generally be the dogsbody.

And then our Jill moved into a house nearby with views up to the Palace and as the book says, “my cup runneth over”.*

All of which made the Palace a perfect topic for a Topping painting and like New York I just had to repeat it.

Location; Eltham Palace

Painting;2024 © Peter Topping Paintings, from Pictures from an photograph by Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick 2015.