White Hart Hotel, Sonning-on-Thames, England-LCCN2002708106

River Thames - Sonning Bridge - geograph

The Great House at Sonning (formerly the White Hart public house) is a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

and restaurant with a riverside garden on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

near

Sonning Bridge Sonning Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames at Sonning, Berkshire. It links Sonning with Sonning Eye (Oxfordshire) and crosses the Thames on the reach above Shiplake Lock, just short of Sonning Lock. It is a brick arch bridge complet ...

Sonning Sonning is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England, on the River Thames, east of Reading. The village was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book '' Three Men in a Boat'' as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river". Geo ...

, Berkshire, England. It is possible for patrons to moor along the

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...

running past the hotel on the river. It was formerly a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, known as the White Hart because King Richard II's wife,

Isabella of Valois Isabella of France (9 November 1389 – 13 September 1409) was Queen of England as the wife of Richard II, King of England between 1396 and 1399, and Duchess (consort) of Orléans as the wife of Charles, Duke of Orléans from 1406 until her ...

was kept prisoner at the Bishop's Palace in the village after his death and his badge was a

White Hart The White Hart (" hart" being an archaic word for a mature stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who probably derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. It may also have been a ...

. In 1989, the original White Hart was combined with The Red House, previously a private home on Lee's Hill where the dramatist Sir

Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...

resided during 1945–47, to become The Great House. About 150 metres East on the opposite side of the B478 road are

Deanery Garden Deanery Garden (or The Deanery) is an Arts and Crafts style house and garden in Sonning, Berkshire, England. The house was designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens between 1899 and 1901. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens—laid ...

and St Andrew's Church. Close by, just over

, is

The Mill at Sonning The Mill at Sonning is a theatre and restaurant (or dinner theater), converted from a circa-1800 flour mill on earlier foundations, on an island in the River Thames at Sonning Eye in the English county of Berkshire. The river divides into th ...

, now a

dinner theatre Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where pat ...

. On the opposite Oxfordshire bank of the Thames is another riverside hotel and restaurant, the

French Horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

. Patrons have included

Amal Amal may refer to: * Amal (given name) * Åmål, a small town in Sweden * Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party ** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia * Amal language of Papua New Guinea * Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...

and George Clooney. The Clooneys bought the nearby Mill House in

Sonning Eye Sonning Eye is a hamlet on the River Thames in the Sonning Common ward of South Oxfordshire, England, in the civil parish of Eye & Dunsden (one of its four small settlements), at what is since 1974 the southernmost tip of Oxfordshire. Geograph ...

in 2014.

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* Hotels established in 1989 Hotels in Berkshire Restaurants in Berkshire Pubs in Berkshire Buildings and structures on the River Thames Sonning Former pubs in England {{Berkshire-struct-stub

See also

References

External links