River & Rowing Museum - Henley-on-Thames

Robert Pullin

The River and rowing museum in Henley is a nice clean place. The museum is nicely laid out with rowing boats both modern and 100+ year old, there are medals from athletes throughout history. There's a lovely walk through exhibition of the wind in the willow's great detail in the models. We then went upstairs there is a lift if needed to where the rowing exhibition is and the river exhibition is and on the wall is a piece on the author of wind in the willows. The River exhibition carries on about the river through time and includes flooding and ww2. You then walk over the main entrance where there are some pieces of art this leads you to the Henley part of the museum this covers the first settlement all the way through to modern times covering the bridge and the regatta which is held on the river which is just outside the museum also in this part of the museum there is a door to another room which houses a very old picture and a floor puzzle which can be played with the puzzle not the picture. After this we had lunch and there is a café within the museum very nice food and reasonably priced if money is tight then you may wish to take your own food, (five of us went and it cost about fifty pounds for lunch). We then went back into the museum and from July 2024 to July 2025 please check before going there is or was a space exhibition containing some interesting stuff two space suits and some debris of heat shield interesting stuff on the Saturn v and Apollo missions. I would like to say we visited on 30/10/24 in the half term there were two quizzes to do for children at a pound each with a prize at the end. I thought that the total cost of £39 pounds to enter, that's 2 adults and 3 children which I feel is good value for a day out you can leave and come back within opening times that day we left and had a walk along the river to the play park for older kids there is a play park for five and under next to it it was a nice day and there is a little café that sells food and ice cream with some seating inside and out. I hope this helps you make a trip to see the museum and Henley. I would say the town centre is a bit of a walk but still fairly close should you get to the museum early and want to go into town I would also advise parking outside the museum so you don't get locked out as the museum has it's own gate thanks Bob

A Westwood

Fantastic museum loads to to see. Information about Henley, rowing, the river itself. They also when we visited they had a lovely wind in the willow exhibition, a photography exhibition and my favourite a space exhibit showing artifacts from human space flight.

The space vault has objects and stories that accompany them, These items are amazing to see and a must see for any space fan. The objects might seem random to a none space fan but you have to remember that these are items from the Apollo missions up to current day space X missions, that are now in a private collection, therefore these items will always be smaller items that can appear on the open market for sale. It is great to see these objects of history preserved and available to see.

Grosvenor Art Gallery and Studios

Fabulous immersive exhibition with incredible cloudscapes by Caversham based contemporary painter, Yuliya Martynova, and enveloping scents created to match the personal story and artistic journey by local olfactory artist Gabriel De Carvalho. La Femme Nuage is one show in Henley hosted in the Museum luminous art gallery settings is not to be missed this year!

Der Wormser

A great place not only for Rowers! The collection is very impressive and covers all aspects of the traditional sport of rowing. If you row yourself, there is no discussion that you have to visit this place, but do not be afraid to bring your non rowing family with you... there is something for everybody. Decent ticket prices, it was not very busy even during school holidays. Do not forget to take pictures with the Redgrave/Pinsent statues in the back and check out the Row2Recovery boat, which has crossed the Atlantic!

Andy P

Nice museum and cafe. Currently they have a few extra exhibitions. One is on Wind in the Willows and the other more randomly is on the moon landings. Plenty of interesting exhibits on rowing but also the natural (and increasingly unnatural) history of the Thames. Plenty of parking around the back of the museum. Be aware that they really do lock the car park after closing time.

P Bailey

Lattes served barely warm, pain au raison raison was dry (yesterday's?), toasty (£7.50) clearly from a packet and was burnt ! Snail pace service. Lovely building but someone needs to manage the cafe.

Christophe Stevens

Great museum with cafe. The rowing part is nice but we especially liked the Henley and the wind in the willow galleries. It is a great place to satisfy visitors from all ages and there are very good toilets to change babies. The shop is well provisioned with all type of merchandise.

Char C

Being a massive fan, i dragged my husband and 3 year old here for the Wind & the Willows exhibit. We all Absolutely loved it. The WITW themed playroom upstairs for the children was perfect too, a lovely touch having WITW themed fancy dress for them. The museum as a whole is stunning. We all enjoyed the gallery and the museum had to offer. We ate here also! The cafe was super clean, bright and inviting with lots of space. The food was incredible and we LOVED the pulled pork toastie and cakes. We spent a good few hours here and then enjoyed a walk up the river just outside where all the house boats reside.
The staff were also super friendly and we thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop too!