Updated playing cards pack to launch with new independent businesses

GUESTS are being invited to a launch event to see who has made it into the latest pack of the Henley Playing Cards.

Emma Sweet, 43, the founder of Ace Places Playing Cards, came up with the idea three years ago and launched the Henley pack in March 2023.

She said: “I’ve worked in marketing for my 20 years-plus career and I just suddenly had this brainwave, that actually, we all come to new towns and go on Google and TripAdvisor, but actually as someone who spends a lot of time in both towns, you can really curate the pack to act as a guide to the town, but curated by a local rather than just like algorithms.

“There’s some cards in the pack that are deliberately mysterious so that you’d go on the website and read about them.”

The pack contains
54 cards in total, the usual 52 cards and two “wild cards”.

Ms Sweet, who lives in Knowl Hill, said each playing card showcases “something different” to do in Henley, including events and venues such as cafés, pubs and shops.

The cards focus on independent businesses and giving them a voice.

Ms Sweet added: “This is just about celebrating things that make the town unique, that’s why I did the cards.”

The Henley pack was last refreshed with new businesses in June last year and 13 new businesses are being added. She will showcase supersized versions of the cards next Friday at a public event at the Flyte bar in Market Place from 7pm to 8pm.

At the event, guests will be able to meet Ms Sweet, see the supersized versions of the new cards and pick up the new pack.

Those fond of a particular card will be able to pre-order any of the designs to be supersized and framed, in time for Christmas.

Ms Sweet said: “It’s always great to chat to people because you hear the stories of what the cards mean to them. The reason that people buy them is because they’re so beautifully illustrated.”

Ms Sweet added that the pack, illustrated by Nicola Metcalfe, also acts as a marketing tool because visitors to the town can buy it and discover the “hidden gems of Henley”.

More than 8,000 packs of Henley Playing Cards have been sold so far, with 25p from £10 sale price going to the Kenton Theatre.

A pack of Marlow Playing Cards, with 11 new cards, will launch on November 24.