Danesfield House

About the venue

Country house hotel and spa above the Thames near Marlow, completed in 1901 with 65 acres of formal gardens. Licensed rooms take 10 to 110 for a ceremony and wedding breakfast, 150 in the evening, and the whole 60-bedroom hotel can be hired exclusively.

Mrs Arthur Hornby Lewis was so attached to Danesfield House that she asked to be buried in its grounds, and in 1930 she was. Her trustees then found the estate hard to sell with its owner still in residence. In 1938 they got permission to move her coffin to Hambleden cemetery.

The house is the third on the site. Robert William Hudson completed it in 1901, then demolished the Georgian house it replaced. In 1941 the RAF requisitioned it for its reconnaissance and photography intelligence section, and stayed until 1977. Carnation Foods ran its headquarters here before the hotel opened on 1 July 1991.

There are 65 acres of formal gardens with views over the River Thames to the Chiltern Hills. Two waterfalls are built from Pulhamite, an artificial rock also used at Buckingham Palace and Sandringham. Muntjac and fallow deer nibble the yew hedges as high as they can reach, which leaves a dead straight line along the bottom. Head Gardener Dave Brown leads a monthly garden and history tour.

All 60 bedrooms and suites are designed differently. Some have four-poster beds and some are duplex suites over two floors. Spa Illuminata has a 20-metre pool, eight treatment rooms, a studio and a gym. Afternoon tea is served in The Orangery every day, and the kitchen holds two AA Rosettes. Heathrow is about 30 minutes away.

Completed in 1901 above the River Thames

65 acres of formal gardens

Licensed rooms for 10 to 110, plus outdoor areas

Evening receptions for 150

Whole-hotel exclusive use

Private dining for 16 to 120

60 bedrooms and suites

Spa with a 20-metre pool