Step this way ...

This is the spectacular carved oak Elizabethan staircase once graced the old Theobald's Palace in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, the remains of which now stand in Cedar's Park. Elizabeth I undoubtedly trod these stairs. The palace was demolished in 1651 and the staircase was removed to a house in Crews Hill, Enfield.

Many years later, it was then bought by brewery heir Sir Henry Meux and re-installed at Theobald's Park House where he lived with his eccentric wife, Lady Valerie Meux (1852-1910), known for her flamboyant dress, sharp wit, and penchant for shocking society.

All these antiquities - and many more treasures were sold off in an eight-day sale in May 1911. The staircase was sold for £925 to politician and soldier Claude Lowther (1870-1929). He was a Unionist M. P. for Eskdale in the old county of Cumberland between 1900 and 1906. It is now at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex.

On the right of the image, at the top of the staircase, you can see what look like two - maybe three - framed Egyptian papyri, that once were part of the Egyptian antiquities owned by Lady Valerie Meux. Theses included the famous 'cursed' mummy.

This photograph was published in The Graphic, Saturday 13 May 1911.