The French Horn | |
---|---|
Restaurant information | |
Owner(s) | Michael Emmanuel |
Head chef | Josiane Diaga |
Food type | [Classic French & British] |
Street address | [Play Hatch Road, Sonning on Thames] |
City | Reading |
County | Oxfordshire |
Postal/ZIP Code | RG4 6TN |
Country | United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°28′38″N0°55′00″W / 51.47729°N 0.91667°W |
Seating capacity | 70 |
Reservations | +44 (0)118 969 2204 |
Website | www.thefrenchhorn.co.uk |
The French Horn at Sonning is a hotel and restaurant on the banks of the River Thames next to the Sonning Backwater Bridges, at Sonning Eye, Oxfordshire, England. [1] [2] The hotel includes a number of riverside cottages that are now used as rooms for hotel clients. There is an old, rusty iron gate with the name of the hotel within the ironwork on the path by the river opposite Sonning Bridge.
Notable clientele included the film director and restaurant critic Michael Winner (died 2013), [3] who has used the location as a film set. It has also featured in the books of Dick Francis. [4]
Close by is The Mill at Sonning, now a dinner theatre. On the opposite Berkshire bank over the main Sonning Bridge is another riverside hotel and restaurant, the Great House at Sonning.
Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. In the 2021 Census, it had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Buckinghamshire. The town is situated 27 miles (43 km) west of Charing Cross, London and 13 miles (21 km) east-northeast of the county town of Reading. The town differs from the Parliamentary constituency of Maidenhead, which includes a number of outer suburbs and villages, including villages which form part of the Borough of Wokingham such as Twyford, Charvil, Remenham, Ruscombe and Wargrave.
Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London, England. Built in the 1860s, it runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare for road traffic between the City of Westminster and the City of London.
The River Blackwater is a tributary of the Loddon in England and sub-tributary of the Thames. It rises at two springs in Rowhill Nature Reserve between Aldershot, Hampshire and Farnham, Surrey. It curves a course north then west to join the Loddon in Swallowfield civil parish, central Berkshire. Part of the river splits Hampshire from Surrey; a smaller part does so as to Hampshire and Berkshire.
Streatley is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. The village faces Goring-on-Thames. The two places share in their shops, services, leisure, sports and much of their transport. Across the river is Goring & Streatley railway station and the village cluster adjoins a lock and weir. The west of the village is a mixture of agriculture and woodland plus a golf course. The village has a riverside hotel. Much of Streatley is at steeply varying elevations, ranging from 51m AOD to 185m at Streatley Warren, a hilltop point on its western border forming the eastern end of the Berkshire Downs. This Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is topped by the 87-mile The Ridgeway path, which crosses the Thames at Goring and Streatley Bridge.
Goring-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England. Situated on the county border with Berkshire, it is 6 mi (10 km) south of Wallingford and 8 mi (13 km) north-west of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census and was estimated to have increased to 3,335 by 2019.
Marsh Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames in England, about 1 mile upstream of Henley Bridge in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The lock is close to the Berkshire bank, but accessed from the Oxfordshire side via two long walkways, the downstream one being near Mill Meadows. The first pound lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773.
Sonning Lock is a lock and associated weir situated on the River Thames at the village of Sonning near Reading, Berkshire, England. The first lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773 and it has been rebuilt three times since then. There is a weir a little upstream at the top of the island where Sonning Backwater separates from the main course of the river.
Bray Lock is a lock and weir on the River Thames in England near Bray and Dorney Reach, and is just above the M4 Bridge across the Thames. The lock is on the Buckinghamshire side of the river on the opposite bank from Bray itself and Maidenhead which are in Berkshire. Here, the county line stands roughly halfway between the lock and the opposite bank, following the course of the Thames itself. The pound lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission relatively late, in 1845. The lock keeper's cottage is on an island between the lock and the weir.
Shiplake Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames in England between the villages of Shiplake and Lower Shiplake, Oxfordshire. It is just above the points where the River Loddon joins the Thames and Shiplake Railway Bridge crosses the river. The first pound lock was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773.
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 completed in 1775, to replace an earlier wooden bridge. The bridge has been the subject of many paintings and prints by artists and is a Grade II listed building.
Shad Thames is a historic riverside street next to Tower Bridge in Bermondsey, London, England, and is also an informal name for the surrounding area. In the 19th century, the area included the largest warehouse complex in London.
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, at what is since 1974 the southernmost tip of Oxfordshire.
Sandford-on-Thames, also referred to as simply Sandford, is a village and Parish Council beside the River Thames in Oxfordshire just south of Oxford. The village is just west of the A4074 road between Oxford and Henley.
The Mill at Sonning is a theatre and restaurant, 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 Great House at Sonning is a hotel and restaurant with a riverside garden on the River Thames near Sonning Bridge at Sonning, Berkshire, England. It is possible for patrons to moor along the towpath running past the hotel on the river.
Hambleden Lock is a lock with a long weir situated on the River Thames in England, about 2 miles downstream of Henley Bridge. The lock is on the Berkshire bank between Aston and Remenham. Built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1773, the lock is named after the village of Hambleden, a mile (1.5 km) to the north.
Sonning Backwater Bridges are the road bridges across the first two of three branches of the Thames at Sonning Eye, Oxfordshire, England.
Tagg's Island is an ait (island) on the River Thames on the reach above Molesey Lock and just above Ash Island, located in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and part of Hampton. The island is roughly 400 metres long by 90 metres wide at its widest point, covering 6 acres. Although close to the Surrey bank near East Molesey, the island is connected to the further Middlesex bank by a single track road bridge, being the only island on the non-tidal Thames accessible by car.
The Abbey River is a right-bank backwater of the River Thames in England, in Chertsey, Surrey — in the town's northern green and blue buffers. The L-shaped conduit adjoins mixed-use flood plain: water-meadows landscaped for a golf course, a motorway and a fresh water treatment works on the island it creates, Laleham Burway to its east and north in turn. Its offtake from the Thames is at the apex of Penton Hook, Staines upon Thames below its lower weir close to the Chertsey-Thorpe boundary in the Borough of Runnymede. Its outfall is the weir pool of Chertsey Lock back into the Thames, visible from Chertsey Bridge.
Skindles was a hotel in Maidenhead, England, on the Buckinghamshire bank of the River Thames by Maidenhead Bridge. Formerly the Orkney Arms, built in 1743, it was turned from a coaching inn into a fashionable hotel by William Skindle in 1833. In the 20th century, it became notorious as a place for adulterous assignations. Its guests included Winston Churchill and Princess Margaret. Musicians who performed there included The Stranglers, The Rolling Stones, and The Strawbs. The hotel appears in the film Kind Hearts and Coronets. Skindles is mentioned in the play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff: 'We danced a bit at Skindles, and drank a lot of port and muck'.