Eltham Lodge

A lavishly illustrated history of Grade-1 listed Eltham Lodge, one of the finest examples of Restoration architecture in Britain, now home to The Royal Blackheath Golf Club, the oldest golf club in England.

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The history of this magnificent house has been neglected along with the reputation of its gifted architect, Hugh May. In this book, John Bunney has extensively researched the fascinating details of the building's previous owners and occupants , its architectural history and the evolution of its sumptuous parkland setting. The book is lavishly illustrated with original photographs, historic paintings, archival maps and architectural drawings to create a complete visual record of Eltham Lodge from its commission by wealthy merchant Sir John Shaw in 1663 to its current incarnation as a magnificent clubhouse. The author has brought together missing pieces of the jigsaw, from portraits of its previous owners now in far-off collections to fragments of its exquisite hand-painted wallpaper preserved in the V&A museum. The lives of the occupants from the 1st Baronet, financier to Charles II , through to Kitty O'Shea wife of Irish Nationalist Charles Parnell Stewart - mirror the history of the United Kingdom. Through changing fashions in architecture and landscape, the book traces how successive generations of owners and tenants developed Eltham Lodge to keep pace with the times and reflect their status, or their declining fortunes. Architectural historians, club members, golf enthusiasts and anyone living or interested in the history of the Eltham area will find much to enjoy in the author's meticulous research.