Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
21
at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it was damaged by a gas explosion, repaired and
re-erected on its present site.
Royal Military Academy
On the south side of Woolwich Common stands James Wyatt's former
Royal Military
Academy
, completed in 1806 in an imposing mock-Tudor style as a foil to his Royal
Artillery Barracks (see p.325). The 720ft facade faces north onto a parade ground, with
an imitation of the Tower of London's White Tower as its centrepiece. The academy,
known as “The Shop” in the British Army - because its first building was a converted
workshop in the Arsenal - closed in 1939, and merged with Sandhurst after the war.
Thames Barrier
Unity Way • Thurs-Sun 10.30am-5pm • £3.75 •
T
020 8305 4188,
W
environment-agency.gov.uk • Charlton or Woolwich Dockyard train station
London has been subject to flooding from surge tides since before 1236, when it was
reported that in “the great Palace of Westminster men did row with wherries in the
midst of the Hall”. A flood barrier was advocated as far back as the 1850s, but it was
only after the 1953 flood that serious consideration was given to defences. Opened in
1982, the
Thames Barrier
is a mind-blowing feat of engineering, with its gleaming fins
and movable steel gates weighing 3300 tons. If you want to find out more, head for the
information centre
, on Unity Way, where glossy models and macho videos help explain
the basic mechanism of the barrier (by no means obvious from above the water). If you
want to see the barrier in action, phone ahead to find out the date of the monthly test.
Eltham Palace
Court Yard • Mon-Wed & Sun: April-Oct 10am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm • EH • £9.90, gardens only £5.80 •
T
020 8294 2548,
W
elthampalace.org.uk • Eltham train station from Victoria, London Bridge or Charing Cross
Eltham Palace
was one of the country's foremost medieval royal residences and even a
venue for Parliament for some two hundred years from the reign of Edward II. All that
remains now is the fifteenth-century bridge across what used to be the moat, and the
Great Hall
, built by Edward IV in 1479, with a fine hammerbeam roof hung with
pendants, and two fan-vaulted stone oriels at the far end.
Somewhat incredibly, in the 1930s, millionaire
Stephen Courtauld
(of art-collecting
fame) got permission to build his own “Wrenaissance”-style house
onto the Great Hall,
and convert the moat into landscaped gardens. He lavished a fortune on the place,
creating a movie star's party palace for his glamorous half-Italian, half-Hungarian wife,
Virginia (who sported a risqué tattoo of a snake above one ankle). The house was
designed by
Seely and Paget
, furnished by the best Swedish and Italian designers, and
kitted with the latest mod cons: underfloor heating, a centralized vacuum cleaner, a
tannoy system and ten en-suite bedrooms. Then, shortly before the end of the war, the
family left for Rhodesia, taking most of the furniture with them.
Inside, there are acres of exotic veneer, an onyx and gold-plated bathroom, and lots
of quirky little
Art Deco
touches - check out the Alice in Wonderland relief above
the door in the circular entrance hall, which is flooded with light from a spectacular
glazed dome. The audiotours fill visitors in on the family's various eccentricities,
which included keeping a
pet ring-tailed lemur
called Mah-Jongg, which had its own
centrally heated bedroom approached by a bamboo ladder and was notorious for
biting disliked male visitors.
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
, three miles east of Eltham, is a pretty nondescript 1930s suburb, but it
has three significant architectural attractions from the days when it was still mostly
heath, peppered with houses of the wealthy.
