Eltham Palace is a heritage site "where art deco meets Henry VIII"

Southeast London's Eltham Palace is an unusual marriage of medieval and Tudor architecture and the opulent interior-design choices of 1930s millionaires, which forms the next instalment in our Art Deco Centenary series.

Today an English Heritage site, the many-layered Eltham Palace estate includes one of the UK's best-preserved examples of art deco interior design – a house built for the wealthy Stephen and Virginia Courtauld between 1933 and 1936, designed by architectural duo Seely & Paget and dressed in the era's most cutting-edge styles.

The architects designed the large house around a triangular entrance hall with curved sides, complete with a concrete and glass domed roof, a parquet dance floor and flanked by separate ladies' and gentlemen's cloakrooms that were more typical of the day's grand public institutions than private homes.

Swedish architect Rolf Engströmer was responsible for the space's decadent design – likely the first Swedish-style interior in England and Eltham Palace's most "authentic art deco interior", according to English Heritage.

Pivotal to the entrance hall is the Australian blackbean veneer wall, clad in marquetry panels by Swedish artist Jerk Werkmäster.

The panels' angular motifs depict an eclectic combination of an oversized Roman soldier and a Viking, as well as Florentine and Venetian palaces, 1920s Stockholm architecture and the Courtaulds' prized motor yacht, Virginia.

This visual fusion highlights a central facet of art deco design, mixing traditional notions of beauty with symbols of modernity. It reveals the former homeowners' globetrotting status, confirmed by the hall's "exotic" wood veneer that characterised many of the period's other notable interiors.

"Strikingly modern for its time, the palace's bold patterns and geometric shapes make it a masterpiece of interior design," curator Lester Oram said of the entrance hall in 2015.

Courtaulds built "ultra-modern party house"

Eltham Palace is arguably one of the UK's most distinctive architecture and design mashups, with a chequered history that dates back to 1086.

What was originally a moated manor house recorded as belonging to the half-brother of William the Conquerer became a royal residence in 1305, subsequently playing home or host to many of Britain's historical elite – not least the Tudor king Henry VIII, who lived at Eltham Palace in childhood.

At the turn of the 17th century, the estate fell on hard times. Exacerbated by Britain's spate of civil wars, Eltham Palace was reduced to a farm for 200 years before undergoing various modest repairs in later decades.

It wasn't until Seely & Paget's art deco project that the site was catapulted into the contemporary design scene. The Crown granted the Courtaulds a 99-year lease of the estate under the stipulation that they repair its striking hammer-beam great hall, originally added to the royal home by King Edward IV in the 1470s.

"[Stephen Courtauld] bought the lease of a medieval palace, a scheduled ancient monument miraculously preserved in southeast London suburbia, and built on an ultra-modern party house," wrote Maev Kennedy in The Guardian in 1999, which described the property as one of the oddest houses in England "where art deco meets Henry VIII".

Next to the home's entrance hall is the dining room – another notable interior that "truly embodies the art deco style," according to Oram. It is one of a selection of spaces at Eltham Palace furnished by aristocratic Italian interior designer Peter Malacrida.

Black lacquered doors were clad with the Greek key pattern typical of art deco's geometric style and finished with four gold-hued animals representing Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America.

The walls were lined with rich layers of bird's eye maple flex wood imported from the US, while the coffered ceiling was finished in aluminium leaf – opulent materials fit to impress the Courtaulds' steady stream of champagne-swilling guests.

"The property, rich in wood panelling and built-in furniture, was designed for entertaining," wrote Kate Youde in the Financial Times in 2023.

Today, 14 pink leather-upholstered chairs are arranged around a bird's eye maple and walnut dining table. The chairs are exact replicas of Malacrida's 1930s originals, which went missing after the Courtaulds left Eltham Palace in 1944 until they were rediscovered by chance in the props department at Pinewood film studios in 2001.

Renovation divided critics

Despite its enduring legacy, the house was met with mixed reviews when it was completed in 1936, with historian G M Young famously branding Seely & Paget's project as "an admirably designed but unfortunately sited cigarette factory" in an article in The Times.

When the Queen Mother visited the Courtaulds' home the same year, she remarked, "I must say, that I thought some of the modern part a little overdone."

Other design commentators were fans. Christopher Hussey, editor of Country Life magazine from 1933 to 1940 and friend of the Courtaulds, was a particular admirer of Eltham Palace's unusual blend of architectural history.

"The transition into the fifteenth century is made all the more impressive by the wise concentration on contemporary design in the new building," he wrote in 1937.

"Criticism and counter-criticism flew back and forth on the subject in the press for over three weeks," noted John Priestly in his 2013 book Eltham Palace.

Also designed by Malacrida, Virginia Courtauld's suite is another show of what international auction house Aubreys called art deco's "steadfast commitment to symmetry and precision".

A classical temple-style domed ceiling mirrors the shape of the entrance hall downstairs, while Malacrida positioned identical sycamore-veneered pilasters with marquetry decoration on either side of the double bed.

The suite included one of four telephones in the house with an external line – one of many modern innovations at Eltham Palace, alongside underfloor heating, electric fires with artificial logs and sleek synchronised clocks. A boiler with enough hot water to fill all of the guest baths at once was also said to astound visitors.

"It was all absolutely spanking new," recalled Betty Vavasour, a regular weekend guest of the Courtaulds.

"In their use of domestic gadgets, the couple were the Bill Gateses of their day," wrote June Ducas in The New York Times in 1999.

Virginia Courtauld's lavish ensuite bathroom is a grand display of materials, complete with a glittering gold-tiled alcove set behind a curved onyx-wrapped bathtub watched over by a statue of Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul.

"One of the most extraordinary deco bathrooms in London can be seen at Eltham Palace," argued Dominic Bradbury in his 2021 book The Secret Life of the Modern House. "As a point of inspiration, it is hard to beat, even now."

"It was, above all, art deco designers who managed to combine function with luxury," he added.

The Courtaulds' home features functional yet sumptuous touches down to the last details, from the boudoir's large leather map fitted with an electric clock to the centrally heated cage built for the couple's beloved ring-tailed pet lemur, Mah-Jongg.

Decorated with a hand-painted mural of the affectionately named "Jongy's" native Madagascan rainforest, the late lemur and his cage showcase the exoticism favoured by the Courtaulds that characterises much of the home's interiors.

A hallmark of art deco design, murals were also included elsewhere. Painter Mary Adshead created a medieval scene for the underground billiards room, which the household used as a comfortable bomb shelter during second world war air raids.

"The palace offers a rare insight into what was avant-garde in the 1930s and is a tribute to an idiosyncratic and modernist couple," concluded Ducas.

The photography is courtesy of English Heritage unless stated otherwise.

Art Deco Centenary

This article is part of Dezeen's Art Deco Centenary series, which explores art deco architecture and design 100 years on from the "arts décoratifs" exposition in Paris that later gave the style its name.

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