Former Stables To Rear Of Nos 32, 34 And 36

Former Stables to Rear of Nos 32, 34 and 36

This is a stable range built in 1601-2, with later modifications, standing behind the King's Arms public house on the north side of Henley's Market Place. It is constructed of timber framing with weatherboard covering, supported on a brick and flint dwarf foundation wall with some brick and flint infill, and is roofed in red tiles.

The building measures 17.50 by 5.70 metres and stands roughly 7.40 metres high. It is ranged east-west across the width of the burgage plot behind the inn, and would originally have been accessed from the Market Place through an entrance via the King's Arms. The stable now forms the northern boundary of the inn's curtilage, though the original plot has been truncated by modern development of the Kings Road car park to the north.

The structure is divided into six very irregularly-spaced bays by queen-post trusses: two wide bays, then a short bay, two more wide bays, and a final narrow bay. The south wall contains two first-floor doors, which show evidence of access from a projecting landing and staircase with a roof above. One of these doors and the external stairs, at the right-hand end, was reinstated during the building's restoration around 2000. The north wall contains several mullioned windows at first-floor level, some apparently original. The west wall is now formed by the brick wall of the adjacent 19th-century Police House. A small brick-and-flint stable of 19th-century date abuts the rear of the main stable and has been heavily modernized and partly rebuilt in recent improvements.

The interior is entered from the Market Place via a door towards the left end. This leads into a cross-passage, to the right of which is now the Tourist Information Centre. Much of the ceiling timbers in this space are original, and surviving fixtures from its use as a stable include a timber manger against the rear wall and blue-brick flooring. A counter has been introduced but is of no historic interest. To the left of the cross-passage, lavatories and a new stair to the first floor have been introduced, the latter incorporating one of the original stall divisions. This stands next to the wall ladder which originally gave internal access to the first floor. The heavy cobbled floor also survives from the stables. The first floor is much less altered and remains undivided. Two of the trusses retain wattle-and-daub infill to their upper parts. Upstairs may have been used for storing hay or for grooms' accommodation. The floor frames are numbered consecutively from west to east, and although the western half was reconstructed in the late 19th century, the surviving joists and axial beams suggest there was no internal staircase to the first floor.

The stable was presumably purpose-built to serve the King's Arms, which was first named as an inn in 1684. Most such stables had two functions: to provide temporary accommodation for travellers' horses and permanent stabling for horses used by public coaches or hired by private individuals for a single stage. It remained in use as a stable until 1947, at which time it housed eight of the brewery's dray horses. It subsequently fell into disrepair and was on the South Oxford District Council Buildings at Risk Register for many years. It has since been carefully repaired by IJP Conservation with substantial funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Together with the Old King's Arms, it was purchased from Brakspear's Brewery by Henley-on-Thames Town Council and now houses a Tourist Information Centre on its ground floor, with a meeting and function room on the first floor.

The timber-framed structure is of special interest nationally for its date and as an unusual survival of an urban stable, with its purpose-built design across the width of the burgage plot behind a significant inn and its continuous use for over three centuries.