Monkey Island Estate

Monkey Island is a seven-acre island in the Thames downriver of Bray, reached on foot by a bridge built in 1956. The 3rd Duke of Marlborough bought it in 1723 as an angling retreat and commissioned two buildings from the Palladian architect Robert Morris: a Fishing Temple and an octagonal Fishing Pavilion. Both are Grade I listed. The Pavilion's Monkey Room still carries its painted ceiling of monkeys punting, fishing and hunting, and in the last century the island was a riverside inn known for dinner dances, with 1,400 guests at its 1964 Oxfam Ball. YTL Hotels restored the estate with interiors by Champalimaud Design and reopened it in April 2019 as a hotel of 40 bedrooms.

The island can be taken whole. Exclusive use runs from 3pm on the day until 11am the next morning and includes The Monkey Brasserie, The Monkey Bar, every function space, the 29 Temple bedrooms, the 11 Barn bedrooms across the water and the Grade I listed Wedgwood Suite. The Pavilion holds up to 130 guests, and the Temple Lawn takes a marquee for up to 300. Guests can arrive by boat at one of the island's two ramps.

The Marlborough Ballroom is the principal room, with a botanical chandelier, art deco mirrored panelling and doors onto a patio with fire pits above the river. It seats 130 and takes 200 for a reception, with a published dinner and dancing layout for 90. The River Room beside it is lighter, faces the water, divides in two and seats 100. Upstairs in the Pavilion, the Spencer Suite and the Boardroom suit a small dinner, and the Whisky Snug above the Monkey Room is reached by its own staircase.