 
See other hotels up to GBP 50 up to GBP 70 up to GBP 100 GBP 101+ |
Eltham Palace
back to sights listingThe House
In the 1930s a new house was built at the place of the ruins of the ancient Eltham Palace, and has recently been superbly restored by English Heritage. Only one thing is now missing: a proper understanding of what this building means.
Eltham Palace is a feast of luxurious design ideas. You'll find concealed electric lighting, centralized vacuum cleaning and a loudspeaker system that allowed music to waft around the house. Authentic interiors have been recreated by the finest contemporary craftsmen. The dramatic Entrance Hall was created by the Swedish designer Rolf Engstromer. Bathe in the light flooding from a spectacular glazed dome, as it highlights beautiful black bean veneer and figurative parquetry. The Entrance Hall is a tour de force only rivaled by the adjacent Dining Room - where an Art Deco aluminum leafed ceiling is a perfect complement to the birds-eye maple walls. Step into Virginia's magnificent gold-leaf and onyx bathroom, and throughout the house discover lacquered, 'ocean liner ' style veneered walls and built-in furniture. A Chinese 18th century sliding screen is all that separates chic '30s Art Deco from the medieval Great Hall.
It must surely be the strangest building in England, and the most misunderstood. Until now, no-one has been able to explain the meaning of all the mystifying features. Why are there so many secret rooms and trap doors? Why is there a picture of the temple of Vesta in one of the bedrooms? Why are there chessmen on the roof? Why is there an English cottage on the roof of a Roman temple? These questions, and many others, have now been answered with the help of from archive photography and documents - and interviews with friends and relatives of the Courtaulds.
History of the House
When the architects John Seely and Paul Paget were given the commission to draw up plans for a new house for Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in 1933, they created a house which was unique in concept, and which now represents one of the most astonishing and original houses in Britain.
At first sight, the house seems to have a strange and clumsy design, with inexplicable architectural features: very irregularly shaped rooms, hidden passageways, trap doors, pieces of sculpture or parquetry depicting strange scenes, and a hotchpotch of architectural styles drawn from over one thousand years. Neither the architects nor the Courtauld family seem to have left any written record explaining the design, and the meaning of the house has been forgotten or perhaps deliberately concealed. Today, sixty years later, it requires a series of flashes of insight for us to see that there is a reason for every single feature in the house. Eventually we realize that all the details fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, or like the answers to a crossword. Once the meaning has been understood, it seems amazing that anyone could ever have failed to grasp it.
If we are to understand the meaning of Eltham Palace, it is essential to know a few key facts about the history of the building. The site where the new house was to be built in 1933 was at Eltham in south-east London. There had been a royal palace on this location since about 1305.
But! A detail from the Bayeux Tapestry: In the Domesday Survey of 1086, the manor of Eltham is recorded as belonging to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the half brother of William the Conqueror. In this detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, Odo is shown sitting to the left of William.
Over the course of the centuries the palace had been gradually enlarged and extended by various monarchs including Edward IV, who had a magnificent banqueting hall erected. For many years Eltham Palace was used by the monarchy, and Henry VIII spent long periods there during his childhood. However, in later years Greenwich and Hampton Court were preferred to Eltham, and the latter was allowed to deteriorate. During the course of the centuries Parliament had met twice in the palace and it had also been used as a prison for King John of France, Henry VI of England, and others. During the Civil War the palace was vandalized and looted by roundhead soldiers, and in the surrounding park four thousand trees were cut down to make ships for the navy. The palace buildings were now uninhabitable and were sold by Parliament to one of Cromwell's men. Next, the site was bought by Sir John Shaw, a wine merchant, who rented it out as a farm. The once magnificent banqueting hall was used as a barn and a cowshed (Figure 1), and Turner, the artist, did a painting of the romantic, crumbling ruin. In the 19th century, some of the palace ruins were demolished and replaced by new houses, while in the early twentieth century the banqueting hall was used as an indoor tennis court. By 1933, when Stephen Courtauld (the younger brother of Samuel Courtauld, the textile magnate) and his wife Virginia bought the site, it was considered that little was worth preserving.
Of the original palace, everything had gone except the great hall, the moat which had originally surrounded the palace (though in places this was now only a wide, dry trench), the foundations, and the bridge over the moat. Also, beneath the ground there were remains of extensive tunnels and passageways, some of which had been built in earlier centuries as drains, sewers, overflow channels, or had formed escape routes in case a monarch should need to make a rapid getaway. There was also a crypt below the site of the chapel, a secret hiding place known as Henry VIII's room, and underground stables for about 60 horses.
Preparations for the new building were started. The farmer's house and most of the later buildings which stood on the site were demolished. Rubble was carted away by the lorry load.
The architects and designers set to work planning the new house, and it is clear that they took as their inspiration the history of the palace and its inhabitants, both past and present. Built into the very fabric of the house there would be constant references to the monarchy, soldiers, parliament and imprisonment. Because it was Henry VIII who had rejected the authority of the pope, there would be a religious theme, and this would challenge Rome. Because it was partly the existence of Hampton Court which had caused the ruin of Eltham Palace, Hampton Court itself would be mimicked. Since the site was surrounded by water, the new house would be built on the theme of a ship at sea. The underground tunnels and rooms would be reflected in the many half-hidden passageways, trap doors and secret rooms. The special interests of the Courtaulds themselves - entertaining, sailing, sport, and horticulture - would be major themes. Stephen Courtauld's early Unitarian upbringing would be referred to, as would his wife's Italian and Transylvanian origins. All these concepts would be skillfully woven together and interlaced, and would be expressed through ingenious symbolism and extensive use of leitmotifs. By intermingling their themes, many rooms would echo and call to each other, thus creating unity and continuity throughout the building. It would be as though the very soil of Eltham, so heavily drenched in history, would produce a growth, a natural formation of wood and stone, in which the past could still be discerned. This house was the astonishing outcome.
Eltham Palace is not so much a house, as the illusion of a ship: a fantasy ship, transforming itself magically from shape to shape; sometimes seeming to be a Cunard liner, sometimes a galleon, at other times a yacht, or momentarily a space ship. On its strange voyage, it will sail not only through different geographic zones, but also through time. It will sail to the island of Madagascar, to Venice, to Sweden; it will visit the gardens of England, it will travel back in time to ancient Rome, to Plantagenet England, to 18th century Italy, and then speed forward to the ultra-modern of the twentieth century. Sometimes we will leave the ship, plunging over the side to walk on the sea floor. There is magic in the air - though actually it is black magic.
There would be no spoken explanation, no written documentation to help us to interpret these illusions, simulations and references; anyone who entered the building would be on their own, struggling to understand what it was all about. Occasionally someone would have a blinding flash of insight and would grasp the meaning of some of the symbols; and at that point they would become players in the great game of deciphering what the house was all about. For each one, the game would last for weeks, as they studied, racked their brains, searched frantically through reference books, cried 'Eureka!', - and then hurried on to the next stage of the game. The house is a huge puzzle, a child's game for adults, a delightful, thrilling intellectual experience.
These stunning interiors which features a unique blend of archaeological reconstruction and Hollywood fantasy are now open for you to enjoy.
The Gardens
Appreciate a stunning mixture of formal and informal gardens created by Stephen and Virginia Courtauld. You will find a rose garden, pergola and loggia nestled around the extensive remains of the medieval palace. Refreshments are available in the Tea Room, newly created from the former Courtauld Kitchens. The gardens also offer many picturesque areas for you to enjoy a picnic: choose from enclosed garden 'rooms' or open lawns - approached via a timber moat bridge, springing from the foundations of the medieval southern entrance.
back to sights listing
More Hotels in London:
Grosvenor House London
Landmark London
Langham London
Hilton Park Lane
Marriott Grosvenor
Meridien Piccadilly
Royal Garden
Sheraton Belgravia
Sheraton Park Lane
Sheraton Park Tower
Sofitel London
Caesar Hotel
|
Copyright © 2002—2008 HotelsOffer.com |
|