Eltham

1:27pm Wednesday 20th June 2007

Located in the borough of Greenwich, Eltham has close links to central London in one direction and Kent countryside in the other.

The attractive suburb has developed along part of the old road from London to Maidstone.

There is no definitive explanation of how Eltham got its name. It could mean "Elta's village", though is could also mean "homestead or river meadow frequented by swans".

Eltham first achieved prominence because of its convenient location and it became popular with kings and queens travelling to and from France.

A moated palace was built at Eltham which became a favourite home of Plantagenet monarchs during the 14th and 15th centuries. Eltham was overlooked by the Tudors and later monarchs, who preferred Greenwich, and the palace was used as a farm after the Civil War.

Two of the palace's three parks were used for farmland but Sir John Shaw, a supporter of Charles II, leased the third park and built himself an elegant mansion (Eltham Lodge). The Lodge is now home to the Royal Blackheath Golf Club and the former park is a golf course.

The palace remained neglected until the 1930s when Stephen and Virginia Courtauld built an Art Deco mansion which adjoins the medieval Great Hall.

Modern Eltham started to take shape when Archibald Cameron Corbett bought the Eltham Park Estate. He began developing suburban housing on previously rural land close to the palace during the early 20th century.

Corbett's estate, along with the arrival of two railway lines through Eltham and the construction of the Shooters Hill by-pass (Rochester Way), led to more development during the inter-war year. Eltham also became home to many workers from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich around the time of the First World War.

More building took place in Eltham from the 1920s through to the 1950s as various estates spring up and the suburb spread out further.

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