Eltham Palace Gardens: A 20-Acre Historic Revival in Southeast London

When millionaire socialites Stephen and Virginia Courtauld acquired Eltham Palace in 1933, they transformed the dilapidated 15th-century estate into an Art Deco showplace—including its 20-acre garden, now maintained by English Heritage. Senior gardens adviser Christopher Weddell reveals the layers of history, from Henry VIII's childhood haunts to the Courtaulds' 1930s redesign.

Garden at a Glance

• Residents: Stephen and Virginia Courtauld (1933–1944)
• Size: 20 acres
• Location: Eltham, southeast London
• Key Designers: Isabelle Van Groeningen (2000 herbaceous border), Thomas Mawson, John Seely, Paul Paget
• Notable: Site history dates to 11th century; Henry VIII spent childhood here.

The Courtaulds designed around medieval relics: the Grade I great hall (1470s), moat walls, buttresses, and Tudor sewage remnants. They added fashionable 1930s features: outdoor "rooms" (tree/shrub-enclosed spaces with benches) and a Rock Garden.

"Stephen loved Alpine plants from his climbing adventures," Weddell explains of the restored Rock Garden, built from now-protected Westmorland limestone.

A lime tree aligns with the Rock Garden's waterfall cascade on an axis through the house—front and back doors open to reveal the waterfall. The Courtaulds expanded the moat, added a Triangular Garden (geometric beds, likely for herbs near kitchens), a sunken rose garden (Virginia's passion—she had a rose named for her), a swimming pool, tennis courts, and orchid greenhouses (Stephen won RHS awards).

The Rock Garden's waterfall cascade aligns with the lime tree. Reginald Farrier's rock garden book remains at Stephen's bedside.

The Triangular Garden's lattice brickwork appears in aerial photos from the Courtauld era. English Heritage planted aromatic herbs to preserve geometry.

Climbing clematis and camellias on walls reflect the couple's eclectic plant taste.

Parts of the moat remain water-filled; the south moat hosts Van Groeningen's herbaceous border. Virginia kept Patagonian swans. Film footage shows cherry trees; the laurel bank post-dates them, added during Royal Parks' tenure as a garden training school.

Garden rooms—fashionable in the 1930s—are being restored. Overgrown holly is being reduced to period-appropriate scale. The herbaceous border includes euphorbia, geraniums, delphiniums, lupines. Topiaries (chicken, standing bear, peacock) are a restoration goal.

A gate remnant of Henry VIII's sewage system connects the dry moat to the southern lawn. The orangery holds a 1930 Alfred Hardiman statue, St. George, with a Commonwealth-bird shield.

The sunken rose garden once held a Verrocchio Boy With Fish replica. Wisteria twines around six columns salvaged from the 1700s Bank of England. The south moat bridge (1990s rebuild on 16th-century piers) follows Henry VIII's deer park entry route.

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