Architecture

Buildings where the building is the reason to go: the inside-out, the Art Deco, the concrete, and the ones that make no sense at all until somebody explains them.

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Eltham Palace

A 1930s Art Deco house grafted onto the great hall of a medieval royal palace.

HousesArt DecoYou can go inside

Photo by Tom Parnell from Dunfermline, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Stephen and Virginia Courtauld took a lease on the ruins of Eltham Palace in 1933, restored Edward IV's fifteenth-century great hall, and built themselves a house next to it that could not be less medieval: a triangular entrance hall lit from a glazed dome, blackbean veneer and marquetry by Rolf Engstromer, a bathroom lined in onyx and gold mosaic, underfloor heating, a centralised vacuum system and a loudspeaker system piping music through the rooms. Their pet lemur, Mah-Jongg, had a heated sleeping quarters with a bamboo mural. The two halves are joined and both are open, which makes it the best place in London to see five hundred years skipped in one doorway.

Where
Court Yard, SE9 5QE
Nearest station
Mottingham · 10 min walk

Step-free access

Opening hours, as recorded in OpenStreetMap: Apr-Oct Mo-Su 10:00-17:00; Nov-Feb Sa-Su 10:00-16:00; Mar We-Su 10:00-16:00; SH "Various"

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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