Venues in Windsor & Ascot
Windsor, Ascot, Bray and the Thames at Taplow and Hedsor: houses, estates and riverside lawns in east Berkshire, within an hour of London.
The Fat Duck
Windsor & Ascot — Creative Restaurant
Up to 40 guests
Heston Blumenthal's three-Michelin-star restaurant in a 16th-century Bray building, available for private hire for up to 40 guests.
Cliveden House
Windsor & Ascot — Hotel
Up to 180 guests
Barry's 1851 Thames-side house and the Astors' party house, let whole for up to 180 or room by room, from the gilded French Dining Room to a vaulted wine cellar for 12.
The Langley
Windsor & Ascot — Hotel
Up to 100 guests
The Duke of Marlborough's 18th-century house in 150 acres of Capability Brown parkland near Windsor, with a Victorian orangery for 100 and a cellar table for ten.
Oakley Court
Windsor & Ascot — Hotel
Up to 140 guests
A Victorian Gothic mansion on the Thames near Windsor, with 35 acres and 95 bedrooms, taken whole for weddings, house parties and celebrations of up to 140 seated.
Coworth Park
Windsor & Ascot — Hotel
Up to 100 guests
A Georgian country house on 240 acres beside Windsor Great Park, with its own polo fields, a Michelin-starred restaurant and an Oval Room that seats 100.
The Waterside Inn
Windsor & Ascot — French Restaurant
Up to 75 guests
Alain Roux's three-star restaurant on the Thames at Bray, taken whole for up to 75 guests, with River Cottage and its walled garden for 12.
Monkey Island Estate
Windsor & Ascot — Hotel
Up to 300 guests
A Georgian ducal fishing retreat on a private Thames island at Bray, let whole for celebrations of up to 200 in its riverside ballroom.
Hedsor House
Windsor & Ascot — Country House
Up to 250 guests
A Georgian mansion above the Thames, let whole for the night: dancing under the Centre Hall dome, dinner for 150 in a panelled ballroom and 13 bedrooms upstairs.
/ About Windsor & Ascot▾
Windsor has been a royal seat for more than nine hundred years. William the Conqueror began a castle there around 1070 to guard the western approach to London, beside a royal hunting forest. The Norman keep was rebuilt as the Round Tower in 1170, and from the 1350s Edward III spent £50,000 turning the fortress into a gothic palace; it is now the largest occupied castle in the world. Across the Thames, Henry VI founded Eton College in 1440. In 1711 Queen Anne, riding out from the castle, chose a stretch of open heath at Ascot for racing.
The hire product follows the river and the park. At Bray, and on the Buckinghamshire bank at Taplow and Hedsor, country houses sit on lawns running down to the Thames, while around Ascot and Windsor Great Park the offer turns to estates in their own acreage. A client is choosing between a house let whole, where caterer, staff and bedrooms are arranged for the occasion, and a country-house hotel sold on exclusive use. Capacity follows the largest room and the lawn: a dinner stays indoors, and a summer party of several hundred needs a marquee. Check the Ascot race meetings before fixing a date.
Windsor and Ascot sit close to town. Windsor & Eton Riverside has direct South Western Railway trains from London Waterloo in about an hour, and Windsor & Eton Central is reached from Paddington with one change. Ascot is also on the Waterloo side, under an hour, and trains from Taplow reach Paddington in about 40 minutes. The last trains back leave Windsor, Ascot and Taplow after 11pm, so an evening can end in London without a night away. By road the M4 serves Windsor, Bray and Taplow, and the M3 serves Ascot.