Where the hell is Henley?

Diarmuid Writes...

Sonia (Heather's Mum) made the good point that lots of our friends from overseas (or what I used to call "The Former Colonies" before I had the error of my ways pointed out to me) might not know where Henley was in relation to anywhere. With that in mind and to help people make the right hotel choices here is some more information and a map...

To link to a zoomable map centred on the church, click here...

Henley is the small town just to the north of Reading in the map above. It is around 30 miles west of London and 25 miles South-East of Oxford - Heathrow is 20 minutes away by car, but to get a car to central London takes an hour because of traffic. Shiplake (where we are actually getting married) is 2 miles outside Henley towards Reading (about 6 miles further).

There are good train services to Shiplake and Henley from London Paddington - trains run around once per hour and take an hour, or alternatively there are about 6 express trains per hour from London to Reading that take 25 mins.

Henley itself is a beautiful market town on the river but it is quite small - it would make a good base to visit Oxford (I believe there is a bus) and there are lots of surrounding villages which are very quaint but for which you would need a car.

In planning accommodation it would be totally feasible to stay in London until the Saturday and then get a train to Shiplake or Henley for the wedding - but better to stay in Henley area or Reading or Marlow after the wedding. There are a number of taxi services in Henley to take you to nearby towns and villages, and the wedding will also be over in time to get the last train to Reading if you prefer.

If you then want to head back to "TFC" directly from Henley after the wedding celebrations (like the next day or Monday!) a taxi to Heathrow would cost around £30. If for any reason you are going to Gatwick Airport there's a train every hour from Reading taking around 90 minutes.

If you want to spend time in London before the wedding we're researching cheap accommodation options (for example university residences) at the moment and will make yet another post nearer the time.