Whenever I find myself away from home, I always look for interesting places to stay. I've ended up in Tudor House Hotel in Tewkesbury, and a medieval coaching inn in Romsey. There are just lots of interesting features and as I'm usually on a little history exploring trip, it just makes it that little bit more special.
So it was with some excitement that I discovered that the Hotel du Vin in Henley-on-Thames is actually a converted Georgian brewery. It has a lovely bar, and to the side an old-fashioned library where you can enjoy a drink (we had a coffee) and relax. We stayed in a little cottage apartment on the side of the courtyard, and honestly it was lovely. They had even left little Ferrero Rochers for us on the desk.
The room had a free-standing bath, along with a shower, toilet and a large king-sized bed. Everything has been converted beautifully, so that although you have everything you need in the modern day, you do still feel as if you're in a special historic place.
Henley Brewery was founded in Henley in 1711, but moved to its now Hotel du Vin site on New Street in 1812. It's just steps away from the river, where you can watch swans and ducks, and walk along the riverside to see all the boats. In the other direction there are beautiful Tudor houses, like Anne Boleyn's cottage (unlikely to have anything to do with Anne Boleyn) built in the 1400s. There's also a theatre which, according to a 1950s guide book, was established in 1805. The employees of the brewery would definitely have been to see plays here, just a few steps away from the brewery gates. The brewery was a great source of employment in the area, not only for those who worked here, but for local contractors. In the 1896 edition of The Building News and Engineering Journal a B. Hobbs of Hart Street in Henley posted a correction to an article they had previously published. He confirmed that he had recently undertaken contracts at the brewery amounting to £7,160, a large sum for the late nineteenth century.
As we enjoyed coffee in the library on a comfy sofa, my husband mentioned that we decided to stay there because I like history. The barman's eyes lit up and he offered to take us for a little tour around the communal rooms, so we drank up and followed him out into the courtyard. He took us into some of the rooms used as meeting places, for weddings, dinners and other events - many of these having original timbers, pipes and other features. Taking us back to the courtyard, you can also see a number of the Georgian and Victorian features like 'The Henley Brewery' emblazoned on the brick wall outside, and a tower which would have once been part of the brewing process. The Henley Brewery was closed in the 1990s and sold in 2016 to the Hotel du Vin group.
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| Medieval cottages on New Street |
The hotel has a restaurant, but because we wanted to explore more of the town we ate at the Bull on Bell Street, becafore enjoying a walk along the river and then back to our room. The next morning, having to leave fairly early we grabbed a croissant in nearby Waitrose, but the breakfast did look good, as did the menu for food the night before. It's also worth mentioning that the hotel offered room service, and the menu for this looked lovely too.
I've recommended the hotel to friends and people I've spoken to since, and I think we would like to return at some point for a more leisurely stay. Care was definitely made to make us feel welcome, everything was clean and converted with sensitivity to the historical site and it was in the old medieval historic area of the town. Thank you to Hotel du Vin for a lovely stay.
Like this? You might also like The 1474 Inventory of Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames; The Stonor Family of Henley-on-Thames During the Wars of the Roses and Historic Pubs: The Bull on Bell Street.
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Sources:
Wikipedia: Breakspear Brewery, Henley-on-Thames
Building News and Engineering Journal, 1898. via archive.org
John Piper, Oxfordshire, not including the City of Oxford. Faber, 1953.
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