Henley On Thames, Temple Island 1899

Photo ref: 43013

More about this scene

From the river bank near the Leander Club we can look across to the river front of Henley and imagine its bankside wharfs alive with the shouts of bargees and watermen loading their barges, with great mounds of corn, stacks of timber and other produce on the quayside. The front was a mix of warehouses and inns to slake the prodigious thirsts of the wharfingers, but during the 19th century things changed. By the 1890s the leisure boathouses and boat builders had taken over, interspersed with inns and hotels catering for the visitors who flocked to the river in and out of the Regatta season. From the bridge northwards, first was the Red Lion, once a great coaching inn which adapted to the changing times by rebuilding most of its stable block as boathouses in 1888 - the stable blocks themselves had replaced warehouses in the 18th century. These are now the Century and Wyfold Galleries, but for years they were the premises of Shepherd and Dee, boat builders. Tom Shepherd was also proprietor of the Red Lion itself; he was a Victorian entrepreneur, and saw the possibilities of diversifying beyond pulling pints. Next along were a range of old cottages, which were replaced around 1900 by the Little White Hart Hotel. Then comes a pub, the Cottage Inn, and the boathouse of the Henley Rowing Club, established in 1839, who took over an old warehouse in 1903; they moved to the Berkshire side south of the bridge in 1986. Behind loomed the chimneys and brew tower of Brakspear's brewery. Beyond New Street, Hobbs and Sons built their range of five-gabled boathouses with upper floor balconies, which became prime sites for viewing the Regatta. The company was established in 1870, and it has boathouses and works to the south of the bridge too, as well as modern yards on the Berkshire bank. Beyond are two more boathouse/houses, Waters Edge and Wharfe Boathouse. All these replaced timber wharves and warehouses, as we can see in the 1890 view of the Reach looking towards Temple Island. Behind on the east side of New Street were Brakspear's maltings, built in 1899.