River & Rowing Museum

My toddler daughter and I visited the museum recently to see the Wind in the Willows exhibit... We should've come for it all. I shamefully underestimated how wonderful this museum would be and arrived too late to really do it justice. We spent at least an hour and a half going round and round the Wind in the Willows exhibit, with me trying to remember the intricacies of the story (Could I suggest putting up little snippets of the story as you go round for people who've either read it many years ago or haven't read it yet 😬) but then again it was such an enchanting display that it didn't seem to bother my little one at all. Infact she was so into the experience that she ended up trying to argue with the judge when Mr Toad is in the dock getting quite vehement that he couldn't go to jail because he was "too cute". When she saw him locked up... Oh we only narrowly avoided her trying to break the display open to liberate him! It's a little too dark here and there perhaps, but on the whole fabulous! And then we found out what we were going to miss upstairs for want of more time! There's art, there are canoes with the most elaborate woodwork. But the real gem was the bit about rivers. It's very interactive, visual and great for kids, but also I didn't know what a lapwing sounded like. Now I do! We both came away wiser and enchanted. The price to go in is basically membership for the next year, so you can go back time and time again (which we will be doing! Especially as they seem to have some wonderful temporary exhibits, we'd just missed the BFG one and Peter Rabbit, but that gives me some indication of the calibre of exhibit they get and we're looking forward to seeing what they're up to next! The staff were really helpful, even calling the Peter Rabbit exhibit to see where it had moved on to and if it was coming to our usual neck of the woods, which was really above and beyond. The location is great, right by the Thames so you can put your new river knowledge into practice and there is a fabulous kids playpark right by it. I very highly recommend this museum- just make sure you allocate it enough time!

Love this little place. The wind and the Willows installation is fantastic. Went with grandchildren plenty to see and do. We will be back maybe without the little ones 😋

Took my daughter to have a look around. Very nice reception staff. Amazing historical information but the 'Wind in the Willows ' model display was the best. Magical for children. Very busy cafe, could have been a bit more tidy, but nice food.

Good Place to visit with kids and family.Had lots of fun in the row boat and motor boat.Well maintained washrooms available near parking.At peak timw you would need to make the boat bookings in person.

First time visitor, very enlightening, great experience for the children especially the ' The Wind in the Willows '

We searched high and low across the country for a venue for less than 50 people for our wedding. We happily landed on the river and rowing museum and worked with Lucy who was fantastic from start to finish. They accommodated changes after covid, changes in our personal circumstances around the date of the initial engagement and everything else in-between. Lucy and the rest of the river and rowing museum are in our minds the most under-rated venue in henley and we wish more people know about the venue and the great people behind it.

A nice little museum about Henley, rowing and the River Thames. There's a great display about Wind in the Willows which our kids seemed to really enjoy - do get the audio description!

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.