Monkey Island, Bray

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Map sources for Monkey Island, Bray at grid reference SU914790

This article describes a real island. For other uses of the name, see Monkey Island (disambiguation).

Monkey Island is a small island in the River Thames near the village of Bray, Berkshire, England. It is now occupied by a hotel, but sports an interesting history involving grotesquely painted monkeys and the Duke of Marlborough.

1 Origins
2 The lodge
3 Inn to hotel
4 External links

[edit] Origins

Although painted monkeys still lurk in the pavilion, the name Monkey Island stems from the Old English Monks Eyot, i.e., Monks' Island, after those monks residing at Amerden Bank, a moated site near Bray Lock on the Buckinghamshire bank of the river, as part of the Merton Priory from 1197 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. By the 14th century, Monkey Island had passed to the Canonesses of Burnham Abbey, a mile to the North, and in the Bray Court Rolls of 1361, the island is called Bournhames Eyte. That name recurs in the P.R.O. plan of 1640 as Burnham-Ayt.

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, Berkshire stone was shipped down-stream in barges for re-building of the City. On their return, the barges carried rubble to be dumped on the Thames islands. Such London rubble gave Monkey Island today's solid foundation, and raised it high enough to eliminate the danger of serious flooding.

[edit] The lodge

About 1723, the island was purchased by Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who had seen the property whilst attending the Kit-Kat Club at nearby Down Place. The Duke erected the island's first two buildings, a fishing lodge and a fishing temple. Monkey Island Lodge (now the pavilion) was built of wood blocks cut to look like stone. It still remains in its original state. The Temple, some 100 yards away, was originally open to the air on the ground floor. Its attractive room above, once a billiard room, has a fine ceiling with Neptune, shells and mermaids in high relief plasterwork à la Wedgwood, said to be the work of Roberts of Oxford circa 1725.

Artist Andieu de Clermont furnished the Lodge with its interesting monkey paintings at about this time, depicting gentlemen monkeys in idyllic river scenes: fishing, shooting, and boating. These paintings still surround a small room with spectacular ceilings, once used as a banqueting room.

Lady Hertford described the Lodge in 1738: "[Spencer] has a small house upon it, whose outside represents a farm - the inside what you please: for the parlour, which is the only room in it except the kitchen, is painted upon the ceiling in grotesque, with monkeys fishing, shooting etc., and its sides are hung with paper. When a person sits in this room he cannot see the water though the island is not above a stone's cast over: nor is he prevented from this by shade: for, except for six or eight walnut trees and a few orange trees in tubs there is not a leaf upon the island; it arises entirely from the river running very much below its banks."

[edit] Inn to hotel

By 1840, the pavilion had become a riverside inn reached by ferry from the South bank. Visitors have been staying in various parts of the two buildings ever since. It became particularly fashionable just after 1900 when Edward VII and Queen Alexandra often had afternoon tea on the lawns with their children. Rebecca West and H. G. Wells visited the island on occasions.

The footbridge was not built until 1956, and additional rooms were added in 1963 retaining the original building as a centrepiece. The hotel and temple are Grade I listed buildings.