Eltham Palace

Eltham Palace in south-east London is a unique building that fuses a medieval royal residence with a 1930s Art Deco villa. The late-medieval Great Hall, with its hammerbeam roof, dates to the 15th century - English kings including Henry VIII spent part of their childhood here. In 1933 the industrialist couple Stephen and Virginia Courtauld took over the dilapidated estate and added an ultra-modern villa by architects Seely and Paget: a round entrance hall with domed skylight, built-in telephone system and a heated indoor enclosure for Virginia's pet lemur Mah-Jongg. English Heritage manages the Grade I listed property today; around 130,000 visitors a year pass through the interiors, gardens with the medieval moat and the 15th-century bridge.