To understand why Henley’s so crazy for rowing, visit this excellent modern museum, 500yd south of the train station. The airy 1st-floor galleries tell the story of rowing as an Olympic sport, with striking displays that include the early-19th-century Royal Oak, Britain’s oldest racing boat. Downstairs, a sweet 3D exhibition pays homage to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows; the romanticised river that book so lovingly depicts was inspired by the Thames around Henley.
River & Rowing Museum
Oxford & the Cotswolds
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
13 MILES
The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…
25.78 MILES
Where else in London can you size up an 18th-century 10-storey Chinese pagoda and a Japanese gateway while finding yourself among one of the world’s most…
13.13 MILES
Windsor Great Park stretches south from Windsor Castle almost all the way to Ascot, 7 miles southwest. It covers just under 8 sq miles and holds a lake,…
29.26 MILES
One of the greatest stately homes in Britain, and a Unesco World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace is a monumental baroque fantasy, designed by Sir John…
21.56 MILES
With its compelling combination of majestic architecture, literary heritage and double identity as (parts of) Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, Christ Church…
21.74 MILES
At least five kings, dozens of prime ministers and Nobel laureates, and luminaries such as Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien have studied in Oxford's…
21.98 MILES
Britain’s oldest public museum, Oxford’s wonderful Ashmolean Museum is surpassed only by the British Museum in London. It was established in 1683, when…
25.75 MILES
Built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1515 but coaxed from him by Henry VIII just before Wolsey (as chancellor) fell from favour, Hampton Court Palace is…
Nearby Oxford & the Cotswolds attractions
12.69 MILES
Eton College is England’s most famous public – as in, private and fee-paying – boys' school, and arguably the most enduring symbol of the British class…
13 MILES
The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…
13.13 MILES
Windsor Great Park stretches south from Windsor Castle almost all the way to Ascot, 7 miles southwest. It covers just under 8 sq miles and holds a lake,…
14.81 MILES
Created in the 1930s by Sir Eric Savill in the southern reaches of Windsor Great Park, this pretty 14-hectare garden includes ornamental beds, woodlands…
15.32 MILES
Over 800 years ago, in June 1215, King John met his barons in this unassuming field, 3 miles southeast of Windsor. Together they hammered out an agreement…
21.39 MILES
Stretching beside the River Cherwell, Oxford's small, peaceful botanic garden was founded in 1621 for the study of medicinal plants. The oldest of its…
21.41 MILES
Christ Church Meadow, a lush expanse bordered by the Cherwell and Thames (or Isis) rivers, stretches away south and east of Christ Church. It's ideal for…
21.41 MILES
Guarding access to a breathtaking expanse of private lawns, woodlands, river walks and even its own deer park, Magdalen ('mawd-lin'), founded in 1458, is…