If You Thought You Knew ...

You mention Oakley Court, and most will have site visited, held an event there, know what to expect.

Oakley Court now needs to be in the list of 5star large (ish) event hotels in the Home Counties.? Miss it off your list and you’re missing out big time!!? Huge!? Massive!!

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The hotel isn’t technically listed as a 5star hotel but in every other way it is.

In partnership with the Soho Group the hotel has been very quietly transformed into the most beautiful hotel.? Major Mansion House party vibes.

The hotels facilities are open to residents and Soho members only.

Accommodation

There are 95 bedrooms.?

The entry level Medium River View and Medium Non-River View rooms are just lovely, ample in size, and, as you open the door, you’re welcomed by the sound of the Soho House playlist from the Roberts Radio.

In each room you’ll find a hamper of treats, all complimentary.? There are Soho juices in the fridge for you, again with the hotel’s compliments.? In fact, the only extra in the room you need to pay for are the hotels own prepared cocktails, currently either a Negroni or an Old Fashioned.

The bedrooms are spread between the Mansion House (8 rooms, 6 large and 2 small), Boat House wing (27 rooms over 2 floors) and the Garden wing (connected to the main hotel with 58 rooms).

Oh, and there’s the Boat House (which was meeting space in a prior life), a truly stunning stand alone, private suite with the most enormous double shower in the bathroom.

There’s a beautiful four poster bed with a lounge area in the bedroom and doors leading from one side of the bedroom into a mini garden and a private terrace which is just crying out for coffee, Sunday papers and hotel bathrobes.? You could lose hours watching the boats on the river.

It’s close to the hotel so you don’t feel isolated in any way, close enough to pop over for breakfast or a drink in the bar before dinner in any number of locations dotted across the hotel.

Tea Tent, River House and Alex Eagle Sporting Club

And there are many options for dining and for events.

The Thames runs the length of the hotels grounds or is it the other way around?

So you can take in the peace and scenery of the grounds, the hotel has placed large, family sized green and white striped sun loungers and pink covered garden swing seats on the lawns.?

Dotted on the hotels river front you’ll also find private decks for small group dining, a large Tea Tent and more surprises further beyond.

The decks are as close to the water as you can get.? They vary in size from a private dinner for four up to one large enough to host a dinner for 20 seated with chic farmhouse style tables, candles, soft furnishings, and cross back dinner chairs or 30 standing.

Some are draped, some are open, all, obviously, river facing.

Also on the river are the hotel’s self-drive boats, a 10-seater and 2 6-seaters for messing about on the water.

And now, how about dragon boat racing as a team build activity, all without the need for a coach transfer in sight.? Your guests or delegates can literally take part in a river-based race direct from the hotel’s lawns.

The Tea Tent

The walk along the river takes in the art installation, very chic, and then to the hotels gorgeous, white Tea Tent.

Think Soho Bake Off, fully open to the front river facing side, this space can accommodate up to 120 for a seated dinner on rounds with its own bar or 200 standing.

It’s such a beautiful setting, but there’s still more!

The River House

Next is the Soho Group area, the River House, sectioned off from the main hotel grounds.

The River House isn’t a house but a beautiful tent, capable of seating up to 150 guests, available for private hire (currently venue hire fee is ￡40k plus catering, inclusive of furniture and the lawn areas that the River House sits in).?

A restaurant from Wednesday to Sunday from the end of April each year with pop up chefs at the weekend.

Scattered around this area and the hotel grounds in general are natural, rewilded areas where nature has been left to reclaim the ground.

Alex Eagle Sporting Club

Next is the Alex Eagle Sporting Club, honestly by this point I’d given up lifting my jaw off the ground, which is also available for private hire (venue hire fee is currently ￡20k at the weekend and ￡15k weekdays).

Complete with a Wagon Bar and Food Trucks, the focus being a marquee which can be fully sealed or fully opened (usually from May each year).? The marquee can accommodate 120 seated on rounds tables or all furniture can be removed.

Just to the rear of this marquee is a giant inflatable, a Stonehenge replica bouncy castle (not just for the children to use)!

There is seriously an amazing smile around every corner.

To the front of this marquee are two lawns where an ice rink will be installed from the end of November.

Tennis Courts and Kitchen Gardens

To the rear, along paths leading around the side of the hotel are two tennis courts and the hotels kitchen gardens with some amazing produce that the chefs come to gather and cook themselves.

Continuing round there are grounds for team building activities, beyond which are the hotels car parks (more than 100 spaces) and that completes a lap of the grounds and takes us back to the main hotel.

Are you still with me?? There’s more to come and it’s worth it!

I’m going to jump around a bit so bear with me.

The Mansion House

Let’s start with the main hotel entrance (by the way there’s a small car park up here too, I’ve been lucky enough to squeeze in for both my visits and believe me there’s enough walking to be done seeing all the sights to forgive not parking further away to increase the step count).

This is a beautiful gothic mansion house, as you drive towards the main entrance, before you see the hotel as such, on your right you will see the dedicated entrance to the Big Rooms (main conference room/s) and almost directly opposite is the entrance to the gym and swimming pool.

We’ll come back to both of those.? But I will just throw in for now that opposite the main entrance is the bike store … you can just borrow a bike and go for a ride along the river front!

Mansion House party rooms (my take on their place in my life)

Enter the most perfect Mansion house party venue!? Reception is discreetly positioned, set back to the right, directly in front of you is a large banquette style sofa central to the main reception area and then you have a gorgeous array of linked reception rooms to the left side of the building.

The Green Room (with its serving hatch style access to the bar) leads into the Conservatory, then through to the Drawing Room and onto the main bar.

On this lovely loop you also have the Sitting room and Library.

You’ll find an eclectic mix of plants, both large and small, vases and ornaments beautifully arranged, a selection of vinyl’s (from Grace Jones to the Beatles to Michael Jackson) and music playing from the deck gently filling the rooms.

There are laptop free zones and areas where you can just sit and work in peace and quiet.?

It really is both relaxed, peaceful, and elegant and an obvious party area.? You could have different food stations in each room to encourage mixing and exploring.

Each of these areas can also be used for private dining.?

Sitting Room – max 14 for private dining (Friday and Saturday night this room is a pop-up restaurant)

Drawing Room has space for a DJ set, is ￡8.5k venue hire and includes the two bedrooms above, max x 60 for private dining.

Conservatory – max 15 for private dining.

Green Room – max 24 for private dining or 20 informal.

The hotel smells amazing too by the way, an EcoAir scent is diffused around the venue.? I was happy to spend the afternoon after my morning site visit still enjoying the subtle smell from my clothes.

Looping through these rooms takes us back to the main reception which then takes us to the right-hand side where the hotel’s main restaurant is positioned.

But before you get there on the right-hand side of the corridor leading to the Parlour is yet another function space, the Billiard room which can seat 14 guests on one table.

The Parlour, the hotels main restaurant, can be split (via heavy curtaining divides, very elegant) into the Upper and Lower Parlour.

The Upper Parlour has a private bar and can seat 20 guests on one long table and 24 on 3 rounds.

The Lower Parlour can be sectioned again.? As a whole the Lower Parlour can seat up to 70 guests.? To section this area there are again some heavy curtains that can be closed to make an even snugger area.

There is access to the grounds all over the hotel and this includes access from the Lower Parlour to a terrace with the most impressive tree.? This terrace can take 100 guests.

So, walking through the Parlour from the Upper to the Lower leads you to a door to the Pantry.

Now the Pantry can be used as storage, a walk through or an office.? It’s included complimentary when you hold a conference in the Big Room as it’s also a link directly from the Big Room to the Parlour where your delegates can have their lunch.

Ta daaaaaaa!? So smooth!? And quite a reveal!

The Big Rooms

The best entrance to the Big Rooms for conferences and gala dinners is via the dedicated entrance (off the main drive, literally a short skip from the hotel entrance).

Enter via the dedicate conference entrance and you’re in the Big Rooms Foyer with two dedicated coffee machines (increased in number for larger groups), with its own facilities, toilets, and cloakroom.

The Big Room divides into two but as one large room it can accommodate a maximum of 112 delegates cabaret style (tables of 8), and this is where the hotels amazing attitude comes into play.? It’s a case of “whatever you want, if we can, we will”.

The main thing I love is the furniture.? The hotel has an amazing inventory of furniture and, basically, if you see it and want it in the conference room, you can have it.? Seating in the main meeting room can be sofa’s, soft furnishings, coffee tables, banquette seating, relaxed yet studious.

The room has natural daylight to either end so whether you need one large or two medium sized rooms you will still have daylight.

There are also several options to where a screen can be best placed rather than just one obvious “it’s there or nowhere” that can sometimes be the case.

Smaller meeting rooms and film memorabilia

Back to the Big Room foyer, and as you enter the dedicated entrance from the outside, to the right hand side is a stair case.

Up one flight and this leads you to the hotels smaller meeting rooms and the way to the Garden Wing accommodation.

On this first floor there are five smaller meeting rooms and a pantry.? The pantry is open when there is a meeting in-house and offers tea/coffee and refreshments on demand.

The meeting rooms here are:

Eton – maximum 14 boardroom

Marlow – maximum 12 boardroom

Henley – maximum 8 boardroom

Richmond – maximum 18 boardroom

Kingston – forgot to ask ;o)))

Oh, and the corridor … stop and have a look.? Oakley Court was derelict and unloved for years, it backs onto Bray Film Studios and was, for a number of years, just a hop over the fence for many film producers.

It became a free location for all sorts of TV programmes and films from Rocky Horror to the Avengers and, along this corridor, there are poster from many of the films and programmes Oakley Court appeared in.

Location …

Heathrow airport – 20 minutes

Windsor – 45minutes on the river

Nearest train stations – Windsor, Slough, Maidenhead

Activities …

Dragon boat racing

Fitness instructors

Sound bathing sessions

Guided garden and river walks

Yoga

Mindful art

Oakley Court was never really an ugly duckling on the river but it’s such a swan and such a must-see venue and could be the next venue for your event.

What next ….

Drop me a message whether you’d like an idea of costs, both for events and for exclusive use or send me over your complete brief and I’ll just get going on some lovely venue options to suit.

email : [email protected]

call, text or WhatsApp : 07831 455206

website : www.mdem.co.uk or blogsite www.venueresearcher.com