MONKEYING AROUND

Nestled on the River Thames, across the border in Bray, Berkshire, Monkey Island is a treasure trove of fascinating stories. Rebecca Younger visited the new hotel and met with the Surrey designer responsible for the estate’s gardens

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For over 800 years a small sliver of land on the River Thames, just downriver of Bray village, has been the haunt of monarchs, aristocrats, artists and writers. Monkey Island enjoys a remarkable and intriguing history and its exotic moniker is a source of staunch debate.

Some believe the rumour that the island got its name after ‘insane’ King George III was banished here with a pet monkey (he wasn’t), while some historians link the name to the Church’s early ownership – in 1197, monks attached to Merton Priory settled nearby, christening the island Monks Eyot.

However, it wasn’t until 500 years later when, hastened by the 1666 Great Fire of London that barges dumped rubble from the capital’s reconstruction onto the island raising it above sea level, that it became a suitable site for building.

Charles Spencer, the third Duke of Marlborough, bought the land in 1723 and created an angling retreat featuring a two-storey Fishing Temple and octagonal Fishing Pavilion, designed by Palladian architect Robert Morris.

Both buildings remain today, as does the 1738 singerie depicting monkeys punting, fishing and hunting, which was painted by Andie de Clermont on the ceiling of the Pavilion’s ground floor ‘Monkey Room’.

By 1840 the pavilion had become a riverside inn and welcomed monarchs (a 1905 photograph shows Edward V11 enjoying afternoon tea under the walnut trees), musicians (Sir Edward Elgar worked on his First Symphony Violin Concerto in The Hut, a house on the adjacent bank) and famous writers including poet Siegfried Sassoon, H.G Wells and his lover Rebecca West, whose 1918 novel The Return of the Soldier centred on a past affair on Monkey Island.