Great Hall Of Eltham Palace

The Great Hall of Eltham Palace dates from around 1479 and is a stone-faced building featuring six bays with stepped buttresses between them. It has a cornice adorned with gargoyles and a restored parapet. The hall includes paired two-light windows with cusped heads set under four-centred arches. At the west end, there are transept-like projections on the north and south sides, each with deep niches on their west faces, although the northern niche is blocked. A door located in the right bay of the north face has a square hoodmould and restored carving in the spandrels. The western gabled end, made of old brick, shows tenon holes from roof members of a former additional building. The hall features a high-pitched tiled roof.

Inside, the upper walls are stone-faced while the lower parts are cement rendered over brick. The roof is a hammer-beam design with double hollow-chamfered members and restored pendants. There is a wooden gallery at the west end, which is a restoration of the screens passage. The east end has large double doors on the north and south sides, along with two blocked entrances under four-centred heads in the east wall. At the west end, the projecting bays on the north and south sides have stellar vaulting in their roofs and long windows at the ends. The rendered west wall includes two doorways.