James Fisher July 16, 2024
Ever wanted to visit the Fat Duck by boat from the comfort of your own home? Here’s your chance
This is likely my subconscious trying to tell me something, but I’ve found another house with water frontage on the River Thames and I am yet again compelled to write about it. If you are growing bored of this, fear not, it will likely wear off sooner rather than later and be replaced by something else, like houses made out of glass, or houses that have their own racetrack, or wine cellars.
The external jetty, situated at the end of the garden, from which you can pootle up and down the Thames, if you so wish.
To the exclusive shores of the Fisheries in Maidenhead, where Hampton have, for £6.75 million, the magnificent Doannee House. It has six bedrooms, about 8,000sq ft of living space and, as discussed, frontage on the River Thames.
One of two balconies on the first floor on which you can sit and contemplate the river.
The property was originally built in the early 20th century in the Tudor Revival style, and has since been modernised and refurbished to create a family home of the highest quality. The interiors feature many things, among them a music room, enormous kitchen/breakfast/sitting room, a dining room, and an enormous principal bedroom suite (with riverside views, because of course). There is also, as it turns out, a wine cellar.
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The drawing room.
Outside, the gardens are principally set to the rear of the property and lead down towards the river. An al fresco dining area and seating area dissolves into areas of manicured lawn, beyond which is the mighty Thames. Thanks to a scheme introduced in 2001, the property has not flooded in 20 years and this part of the river is not tidal, so you can quite literally jump into the river for a swim if you felt like it.
The dining room. It is not small, but in a house like this, people are going to come and visit.
Or, you could use a boat, for the property offers not only a landing space next to the lawn, but also a glorious ‘wet’ boathouse. Along the river, it is a short drive/steam/sail/etc down to either Bray or Maidenhead, between which the house is situated.
The outside eating area leads on to the lawns and then the river.
You can also visit the Elizabeth Line, which is 15 minutes walk away, and takes you to central London, or the newly opened Soho River House, or the infinite other amenities that inhabit this fabled stretch of England’s most famous river.
Doannee House is for sale with Hamptons for £6.75 million. For more information and pictures, click here
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