Catherine Wheel Blue Plaque

The Henley Society was founded in 1961 when a group of local business men and residents objected to a proposal to demolish the Catherine Wheel hotel and replace it with a row of 1960s shops, flats and garages. This vocal group, assisted among others by John Betjeman, John Piper and the Fleet Street cartoonist Osbert Lancaster, managed to get the decision reversed and flushed with their success formed the Henley Society to monitor similar planning applications and generally oversee the maintenance of Henley, which the Society still does to this day.

On December 6^th 2022, sixty years to the day after its founding, the Society commissioned a blue plaque to be affixed to the Catherine Wheel façade to commemorate the occasion. The plaque was  unveiled by the Mayor of Henley, Councillor Michelle Thomas and the Chairman of the Society, following a hearty Catherine Wheel champagne breakfast enjoyed by 60 members.