Easthampstead Park Hotel

About

Easthampstead Park Hotel is a beautiful country house hotel set in the gorgeous Berkshire countryside just an hour outside London.

Surrounded by 80 acres of woodland, parkland and formal gardens, Easthampstead Park Hotel is located on the outskirts of Wokingham with convenient transport links to the M4, M3, M40 and M25 and good train links to London from Wokingham and Bracknell stations.  The Elizabeth Line also runs from nearby Twyford straight into London.

This magnificent Victorian Mansion Hotel is a Grade II listed property, which has undergone £10m+ renovation and re-design of the entire property, completing in 2021 and resulting in a premium hotel, event and dining destination which has retained all the charm of its grand Victorian heritage.

The venue is perfect for residential conferences, meetings, training workshops, team building, team away days, weddings and special events.

Facilities include:

•    91 well-appointed en-suite bedrooms & suites
•    2 Restaurants & Cocktail Bar
•    Extensive Al Fresco dining area
•    East Park Gym
•    Downshire Ballroom with capacity of up to 160 theatre, 110 banquet & 80 cabaret with adjoining Tawney Bar, Orangery & Terrace with light festooned stretch tent
•    Trumbull cabaret-style conference room seating up to 70 delegates
•    9 further meeting rooms with capacity from 10 – 40 delegates
•    Extensive Grounds for team building, outdoor events and barbecues
•    Wedding Pavilion
•    Helicopter landing facility

The latest addition to the estate will be a new premium event space accommodating up to 500 guests – The King Suite – which is due to open in late 2023.   The centerpiece of this remarkable space is a permanent 7m x 4m high-definition video wall and a fully integrated audio/lighting system, perfectly suited for conferences, exhibitions, product launches, private dining, award ceremonies, weddings, Christmas parties, and more!  Additionally, with two 5m wide bi-fold doors, the space is perfect for vehicle access and car launches.

The estate itself has a fascinating history.  In the 13th Century, it was used as a local political court complete with gallows, however by the mid-14th Century it went back to being owned by the Crown and a Royal hunting lodge was built.  This is where the future Henry VIII, then aged 12, first set his eyes upon the King of Spain’s daughter, Catherine of Aragon, as she prepared to marry his brother, Arthur.  Upon Arthur’s death 6 months later, Henry and Catherine were betrothed and some 30 years later she was to be banished back to the estate when the King divorced her.

In the early 1600s, King Charles I gifted the Estate to the Trumbull family and the Royal hunting lodge was incorporated into a newly built mansion house.  The mansion remained as a private residence and the seat of the Marquis of Downshire.  In the 1860s the old house was demolished to make way for the new and current mansion, Easthampstead Park House.

During World War II, the 7th Marquis of Downshire moved out of the mansion to allow it to be used as a refuge and school for up to 600 boys from St Paul’s school in Hammersmith.

After the war, the estate was sold to Berkshire County Council and the Mansion went through the transition of becoming a female teacher training academy, a comprehensive school and finally, a wedding and conference centre before being sold to its current owners, Active Hospitality, in 2018.