Entrada al Palacio y Jardines de Eltham

Eltham Palace is a hidden gem. Beautiful buildings and gardens. Easy to reach from central London and run by volunteers from English Heritage. Henry the eighth was brought up as a child here! Knowledgeable staff and beautifully maintained. Well worth visiting.

Was easy to get to from central London and the walk from the train station didn't take as long as we thought it would. Discovered as we had arrived by public transport we were entitled to a discount so only cost £16 instead of £20. The gardens were lovely but found the house quite run down in places. Some of the net curtains were all ripped and needed to be repaired. The baths were all very dirty as were some of the clothes you could dress up in. Everything needed a thorough clean. Had a lovely jacket potato in the cafe though found the staff a bit grumpy. The cutlery was disgusting and took ages to find knives and forks that were clean and didn't have dried on food on them. Had a good day as met up with friends but it's not somewhere I would visit again or recommend anyone else to.

Eltham Palace is an Art Deco masterpiece. Super easy train ride from central London. Bit of a walk from the train station but doable if you don't have mobility issues. A visit is totally worth the effort. It's hard to believe that the Art Deco period was about 100 years ago. This building is testament to the peak of this era of design. The gift shop and cafe are excellent as well. The original owners of Eltham Palace collected the core of what is on display in the Courtauld Gallery. Complement your gallery experience with a visit to Eltham Palace.

Not our first visit to Eltham but it’s always a great place to visit during the school holidays as generally they put on some good activities for children . Today it was a lady doing limbo competitions and making huge bubbles. She was truly magnificent, had the children completely spellbound. Every time we go, we see something we hadn’t seen before and so never get bored. Just a magnificent house in lovely grounds. Lovely cafeteria adjacent to a splendid play area. Thoroughly recommend.

House and gardens are great, fascinating information given by staff. Cafe was awful, surly staff who told me I was “lucky” they would serve me hot food; and when it arrived it was largely inedible.

We had contacted Eltham Palace to prebook a special tour in celebration for an important anniversary for us. The price of the tour was expensive but it was explained to us that they ordinarily only offer tours to large groups and so the price was to accommodate that (though the number of tours they offer as events for much cheaper and free talks they do on site really makes me wonder what exactly we were paying for, what sort of premium do these tour guides think they're worth over their volunteers?) so we thought it would be worth it and agreed to it this was all confirmed through email through a staff member called ruby. we were in communication with her right up until the day of only to arrive at Eltham Palace to be told that they had no knowledge of the tour and no tour guide was on site. How can that be posisble when there was a staff member emailing us from an email address for eltham palace?? I still don't understand how there could be no record of our booking anywhere after such long conversations? Either this staff member Ruby just does whatever she wants and is being allowed to totally sabotage peoples days for personal enjoyment or her manager cannnot control her. I am appreciative to the staff on the day who found us a tour guide (how they were able to suddenly get one in when it was impossible before i don't know, but i appreciate her coming in on a day off to save our day!!!) and ended up giving us a great tour, but the whole tour booking experience clearly needs a massive overhaul. Anyone who's booked a tour and only has had ruby respond please urge for confirmation from someone else first before assuming you have a tour!

Well signposted, lots of parking, free for EH members, there is a free audio guide which you pick up inside of the house ( it was not very easy to use), lots of very helpful guides in each room, the house was interesting to look around BUT 1. Eltham Palace has been in existence since 1200s with a very interesting history eg Henry VIII spent his childhood here but the house and great hall we see today are all renovations and rebuilds from the 1920s. They are very attractive art deco designs but there is nothing to see of anything earlier, even the great hall is a rebuild. 2. We thought that the commentary was silly and flippant. In saying that, we did have an enjoyable and interesting 2 hours here, it was just not what we expected.

If you have pots of money you could do what you want with a building and end up with a fascinating layout. Entering in the (nearly) triangular entrance hall the decor is fantastic. Moving around the rooms you see the various styles all done with no expense spared. The great hall is much older and is a lovely open space. Outside are the gardens centered around the moat. These make a pleasant stroll in the sun.

I visited Eltham Palace with my Dad recently. The staff were friendly and helpful. The gardens were attractive and varied. The house itself was interesting, with an unusual blend of 1930s "Art Deco" with a Medieval banqueting hall. The cafe was quite good and service was not too long. The only negative I would give is that my audio guide stopped working quite early on, despite being at 70%. Also, directions in the house could perhaps have been a little clearer than they were. Overall, though, this was a great day out. I will probably be back. Many thanks English Heritage.

We have visited Eltham Palace over many years and always found the visits well worth the time and effort.