I thought I'd report on some of the less well known bits of London etc....

Last weekend I went to Eltham Palace, which is on my doorstep so, obviously, I’d never been before.

It is a Medieval Palace, built by Edward IV onto which the Courtauld family have grafted an art deco country house.

Only the Great Hall of the Royal Palace survives from the medieval period. It has a magnificent hammer-beam roof (and lets be frank, who doesn’t like a really good hammer-beam roof?).

The real attraction is the courtauld’s house. It shows what you can do if you have good taste and bottomless pockets.

Pics here:


http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en...og&sa=N&tab=wi

The gardens are lovely and all in all it’s a pleasant way to spend a morning.

Then walk back into Eltham and look down the side of Boots in the High St. There’s a fish and chip shop there called the Eltham Grill that is highly recommended (I had the haddock and mushy peas).

So there you are.

More site visits as I can be arsed to type them (I’ve just joined English Heritage so there will be a few)

Welcome back.
We thought that you were lorst and gorn forever.

ah Eltham my home in London and IMO Eltham Palace is one of the more unique and interesting such stately homes in the London area - take a train to New Eltham (i believe and not Eltham but i may be mixing them up) and a short walk.

You have to wear slippers so as to not mar the intricate flooring.

Looking forward to more CW's lesser known London. Thank you.

CW's getting old. Joining English Heritage and visiting Eltham Palace! Whatever next? No more heavy drinking, watching Spurs and getting into fights.

Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?

To be honest Eltham Palace maybe many things but a stately home it ain't. It's a large house. Quite grand, but no Blenheim.

No more heavy drinking, watching Spurs and getting into fights. >>>>

Doctors orders old girl.

I shall take up bowls next. And whist.

take a train to New Eltham (i believe and not Eltham but i may be mixing them up) >>>

It's Eltham you want. New Eltham is a prairie full of dole moles and scratters.

This is next: Report next week (this is 5 minutes walk from my house and I've never been):

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/d...er-collection/

I'm looking forward to the owl shaped coconut shell.

Thank you CW - this is just the kind of place we would be interested in visiting when next in the UK, which I hope is going to be next year. Good on yer to put up the Google photos! I am looking forward to many more of your visits through English Heritage.
PLEASE, put me out of my misery and explain dole moles and scratters? I suspect dole moles are people living off the British Gov handout, and scratters? maybe squaters?

Dole mole = a long term welfare claimant.

Scratter = a member of the underclass – the sort of person who has a 50” flat screen TV, best available Sky TV package and no books at all.

Thanks CW. I had Eltham Palace on our March list but never made it. Will try again in October. Went to Portsmouth instead the day we'd planned it. Could have waited and just looked up at the Fourth Plinth!

Another thought, Now you've joined BH will you next take up wearing an ascot, monocle and carrying a parasol?

All in jest!!

I'd have thought that cribbage was more your line. or euchre.

have fodors allowed you back from Coventry then? did they inform you officially, or did you have to keep trying to post until they succumbed?

Thanks CW - I would never have guessed the 'scratter' term.
I do have a flat screen - I absolutely love SKY and turn it on as soon as I wake up - but, when it comes to books I have a shelves of them! (Even a rare 'Just So Stories' by Rudyard Kipling and autograph). So I can't possibly be a scratter?!

The easiest way to spot a scratter is by how they name their sprogs.

Whats's an Ascot?

CW

You should compile a glossary of your euphemisms, cliches, colloquialisms,neologisms, vulgarities, and slang no matter how fleeting. That way someone besides yourself will know of which you speak.

I don't hold with those homosexual words.

avalon, to most of us over a certain age an Ascot is one of those old-fashioned gas water heaters with an open pilot flame. Not the customary wear for visiting stately homes, however chilly!

.....Whats' an Ascot?.....

Yes, that's a bit of slang I don't understand.

Welcome back. With one bound, he was free!

That's right, my old mum had an Ascot water heater.
It was state of the art for those days, it heated the upstairs water as well as the kitchen water

"You should compile a glossary of your euphemisms"

Euphemisms are unEnglish (and unIrish). Especially if there's a suitable dysphemism knocking around.