Eltham Palace, South London

Eltham Palace, South London by Michael Turner. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781850747345.

From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries Eltham palace was an important royal palace, a favoured residence where successive monarchs spent Christmas and hunted in the surrounding park. Edward IV built the magnificent Great Hall which survives today, with its soaring hammerbeam roof and oriel windows. In 1933 the site was leased to Stephen Courtauld, who constructed a modern house incorporating the Great Hall. The house was lavishly decorated in a variety of styles, reflecting the influence of Art Deco and contemporary ocean liners, as well as incorporating historical and classical motifs. This souvenir guide does full justice to the medieval remains, the stunning Courtauld interiors and the delightful gardens, also laid out in the 1930s. The Courtaulds were prominent figures in the worlds of society and the arts, as well as pursuing adventurous leisure activities; the text by Michael Turner draws on new research to shed light on their glamorous if brief occupation of Eltham.