ONE of Henley’s newest pubs appears to be having an identity crisis.

Customers may have noticed that the menu at the Henley Brew House in Market Place spells the name of the pub and micro-brewery as three words.

However, the sign at the front of the pub spells “Brewhouse” as one word.

I called director Clive Watson to seek clarification and found he was unaware of the discrepancy.

He agreed it was a “slight mistake” and would have it rectified.


Clive said: “It was all going so fast in getting the ambience right and all the rest of it that I hadn’t noticed and no one else had either.

“However, just before the opening, there was a debate whether to have ‘brew house’ as one or two words and while the operators decided on two, the signwriter didn’t pick it up.”

There has also been a name game at the Queen Victoria pub, which is a few yards away and has also just opened. The pub used to be called the Victoria but was refurbished and renamed by new tenants Simon Rolls and Renee Ansell in the hope off shrugging of the old pub’s poor reputation among its neighbours and the local constabulary.

However, it seems the old queen didn’t want to vanish.

Simon explains: “When we were refurbishing it, we uncovered the old Victoria pub sign and underneath we found this wonderful picture of Queen Victoria.”

The portrait now sits proudly in the bar.

Among those at the re-opening last Friday was Chris Hearn, co-owner of the Loddon Brewery in Dunsden.

He was in good spirits since his beers are on sale at both the Queen Victoria and the Henley Brew House.

Chris even suggested renaming the whole area. “We could call it Loddon Valley,” he said.

Published 10/12/12