Henley pictures, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK

 

Henley

Leander Club signs in Leander Hotel

Displays of the rowing club at the Leander Hotel, Henley.

Rowing club displays. Leander Hotel. Henley.

Photos from Sharot family. Copyright.

 Henley Royal Regatta in 2026 will be June 3- to July 6th.

Online you can buy caps with big front brims, knitted beanie hats, a woolly hat with a pompom on top, and boaters with brims. If money is no object, a teddy bear costing 250 pounds sterling.

The name Henley means high wood or clearing. It is often referred to just as Henley. But there is another Henley, Henley-in-Arden in Warwickshire, as well as places called Henley in Australia and New Zealand.

I was wondering which one is in and which one is on. Then I realised that, like a boat, you are on a river, or river bank. But you are in, or within, and area.

Useful Websites on Henley

https://wikitravel.org/en/Henley-on-Thames#:~:text=Henley%20is%20the%20terminus%20of,times%20taking%20about%2045%20minutes.

Henley Royal Regatta

https://www.hrr.co.uk/

Souvenirs Hats and Bear

https://shop.hrr.co.uk/product/caps-classic/

Henley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley-on-Thames

Updated Oct 24 2025.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

Borough Market Today And In History

 

Find your way today. Handy maps show you different types of food and drink outlets and places to visit.

 

Learn about the area's past.

I took a photo of this so that I could study it later. If you are reading this map on a phone or laptop you can make it larger. I scanned it with the help of a magnifying glass. You can see how the railway linked various stations and landmarks.

Southwark is south of the Thames. Blackfriars was named after friars wearing black clothes. 

Hawksmoor Steak House sells a book about the steak restaurants, their experiments with cooking, and their recipes. 

The luxury chocolate shop Le Chocolat offered us a free chocolate for each person. We also picked up a history of their chocolate shops in Paris and London, England.

The architecture is impressively grand, varied, stirking, with art deco parts, high yet somehow cosy, and at Christmas crowded. It is closed on Mondays according to Wiki but was open on pre-Christmas Monday when we went there.

Wiki handily tells you about its use as a film location. We heard announcements about beware of pickpockets. We took care not to have wallets in open backk pockets of jeans. Not to walk on the edge of pavements looking at phones, because thieves on motor bikes or ebikes could zoom up from behind you and grab your phone. All went well.

Please follow my blogs and share links to your favourite posts.

Britain's Must See Pubs - Three Men In A Boat in a Pub

Many pubs in Britain are associated with famous people from history, kings and queens and authors and their characters. Britain has pubs associated with  English kings and queens, Charles Dickens, Jonson, WWI, Nelson, and named after famous events. In Bristol you can visit the pub which inspired Treasure Island.

The latest pub in the news is at Marlow on the river Thames, where Three Men In A Boat was written by Jerome K Jerome. He lived from May 2, 1859 to June 14, 1927. The book was published in 1889 and was an instant success.

Strange that the author wrote Three men in a Boat. I would have thought he would write about Three Men In A Pub. The pub is called the Two Brewers. Two, not three. I must use Three Men In A Pub as the title for my next short story or novel.

Even if you have never read the book, you will recognise the quotation from the author: 'I like work ... I can sit and look at it for hours.'

Maybe he wrote part of the book in the pub whilst living in London, because he has a plaque  on his home in London.

Wikipedia says:

• A sculpture of a boat and a mosaic of a dog commemorate his book Three Men in a Boat on the Millennium Green in New Southgate, London, where he lived as a child.
• There is an English Heritage blue plaque which reads 'Jerome K. Jerome 1859-1927 Author Wrote 'Three Men in a Boat' while living here at flat 104' at 104 Chelsea Gardens, Chelsea Bridge Road, London, United Kingdom. It was erected in 1989.^[7]

His books are out of copyright  and you can read them at Project Gutenberg. You can also read his autobiography, My Life and Times.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/308

The Two Brewers
St Peter's Street
Marlow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_K._Jerome

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, 

Hotel lobbies and bedrooms viewing an aquarium

Tripadvisor has a list of stunning hotels. These include the Berlin hotel with a cylindrical aquarium in the lobby.

I stayed in a similar hotel, with a cylindrical aquarium in the lobby, in the Silken Grand in Bilbao facing the Guggenheim Museum.

Another aquarium view, this time from the bedroom, is in the suites of bedrooms in a hotel on Sentosa Island, Singapore. You can sit in your sunken bath watching a giant plaice and other fish swim past the picture window looking into the aquarium. Your place or mine? If you were on honeymoon it could be quite distracting. On the other hand, if you were waiting for your partner who was out at a conference or business meeting, or playing sports, it's one way to while away the time pleasantly when stuck in the bedroom.

In the USA at Las Vegas, one hotel has an aquarium behind the reception desk. Most of the big hotels in Las Vegas have fantastic lobbies. No need to book entertainment. You can just go hotel hopping, and shopping and have drinks of coffee in different hotels, seeing animals, birds, flower displays, fountains and more.

If it's waterfalls you want, try Disneyland hotels. Or hotels in Singapore such as the Shangri-la and the Hyatt and Shangri-la.

If you want to go in the water, hotels with infinity pools include one on Bali. (Again, check out Triapadvisor.) My favourite is in Singapore, the Marina Bay sands, on top of the towers. The rooftop bars and restaurants have great views too, for special occasions.

In London, England, restaurants offer views over the Thames. The Shard and the Oxo Tower have
restaurants with views. Be sure when booking to ask for a window seat.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, speaker and author.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/9692706/Hotel-rooms-with-unusual-views.html (Berlin hotel)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/11360010/The-worlds-best-hotel-pools.html (Shanghai hotel)
http://www.radissonblu.com/hotel-berlin (Cylindrical aquarium in Berlin hotel lobby)

Biking Tours of London

Picture from Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for credentials.

Where can I go on a bike tour of London? Somebody asked me this on WAYN. Sensible question.

I don't bike but everybody else in my family does. They bike and motorbike, which I feel are opposites, a bit like liking both cats and dogs. Each to his own.

In London, even the far off suburbs, you see the cycle route signs. Seriously, if you don't have a bike in London, the quickest and simplest way is to hire what used to be called the Boris bike (what's now in 2015 called Barclays Bike). Look at their map which is probably online and comes free when you hire their bikes. Pick the tour fitting your time allowed.

Biking To Famous Central Sites
As a tourist you will have to prepare for traffic driving on the other side of the road, the left. How do you remember whether it's left or right? Where were you sitting last time you were driving or passenger in a car at home or visiting a foreign country, or as a passenger on a bus? (Car steering wheels in the UK are on the right (facing forward inside the car). On a bus in Singapore I recall sitting on the left with the driver on the right, same as in England.

If you are from  country which has the same system as the UK that's no problem. If you are used to driving on the other side of the road, you might feel and be safer following a group led by a local cyclist who is used to London traffic.

If you are a tourist you will want to see famous sites. If you are riding solo and want to be alone but to follow the crowd, you could follow the route of one of the London sightseeing buses which take in famous sites. If you have a friend who doesn't like to bike, or they are cultural and you are sporty, put your friend on the bus tour and follow the route.

Or pick one of more sites you want to see. For example, famous buildings in central London. Or look for the pedestrian tours which you see at London stations. Or just aim to to to one famous sites (Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, Thames Barrier, Tower Bridge, or go to a London Park, such as Regents Park, Green Park, or Clapham Common. Then back to your starting point (where you live or stay on holiday or business).

If you are more convivial, join a group. You can sign up for a free guided tour with Sky Ride Local on a website (see end of post for the London biking magazine).

Famous Out of London Sites
If, like me, you are a Londoner and already know London well, and really want to get away from work, and use your bike not to tour but the centre to explore further afield, your mental goals and physical destination are in the opposite direction.

Within London new in 2015 are the Quiet Routes. I would go along the Thames, away from the traffic in the centre of London. I hate traffic. It makes me nervous. We have had several fatal accidents in London. (For facts on this and safety tips see the second Wikipedia article listed below.)

So I would head out along the Thames, out of London, towards the West. Hampton Court direction. Further West, if you've got the whole afternoon or day or weekend you reach pretty areas with trees, Eton, Marlow, Henley.

In the opposite direction, the East End of London, the breezy areas, the Olympic area, Thames Barrier.

Going South, a favourite destination would be Greenwich. Going North, if you don't mind a hill, but like the challenge, there's Harrow on the Hill for a historic area.

Joining Singles and Groups
You could also write to a bike magazine. Browse it in a stationery store or on line. Look for a past issue with an article on London. Then buy and/or read that. One magazine is devoted solely to biking in London. (See websites at the end of this post.)

Or join Meetup and join a biking group. If they don't have one in your area, start your own.

Or go into your nearest shop selling bikes and ask an assistant where you can go on your bike. Or look for another biker browsing the store and ask them.

Transport for London has cycling guides. For more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycle_routes_in_London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_London
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/
http://lcc.org.uk/pages/free-london-cyclist-magazine

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.

See Suburban Trees In London

   Spring is the season for strolling the city, London, Washington DC, and all over England and the USA. Start, in the south, as the warm weather creeps north through the spring season. Check the weather, often on the back page of your national newspaper.
   You can walk along Hadrian's Wall which was built by the Romans to keep England and Scotland separate and prevent raids. From Easter time many Roman museums will be open.
    National Trust properties will be open to the public and you can choose a walk around the park of a stately home, starting and ending at the gift shop and tea room. Or choose an RSPB site and do some bird-watching.
   Pick a railway station in  a shopping centre and look for a walk from the station to another station or in a loop and back. London libraries have leaflets on local walks. Many walks are signposted.
   You can walk along the Thames river. Pick landmarks, statues to see and photograph, bridges to cross. A place such as a pub or tea room where you can end up for tea. For example, the Tate Gallery and the bouncing bridge.
   Take London's underground railway out to the suburbs. Go South to Kew Gardens (entry charge).

    London is surrounded by the 'Green Belt'. For example, going north, Pinner has a historic high street with the Victory pub turned into a restaurant. The Park has a pond and the Heath Robinson Museum where you can see the cartoonists drawings. Walk uphill from Harrow-on-the-hill on the Metropolitan Line to see the famous school.
   Over in Ruislip there's Ruislip lido. Walk around the Lido admiring the swans. Finish with a reasonably priced lunch or dinner in the Water's Edge carvery.
   Take the Euston line North towards Watford and get off at Hatch End station. A map on the station wall shows how you can walk along pre-historic Grim's Dyke via Grimsdyke Hotel, home of Gilbert who wrote the words for Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. In just one street, in Hatch End, I took these photos of trees in the gardens and along the verges.

Magnificent magnolia trees in bloom in white or the prized pink.

Beautiful pink magnolia blossom against a blue sky.

Looking up, even the white clouds and telephone polls and rooftops cannot spoil the view of the wonderful pink petals.

Delicate pink blossoms on prunus (cherry tree family).

Grey clouds warn of rain.

But trees like rain.

Silver birch with its elegant slim silver-white trunk and delicate branches.

-ends-

Please share links to your favourite posts.