6 days ago
How a Thameside hotel went from Rocky Horror Show to hipster haven
It's been 50 years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry as the groovy alien transvestite Frank-N-Furter from the planet Transylvania, happened.
And it was definitely a happening, not just a release. My first experience of it was as a teenager when I saw the film Fame, which includes a scene with a couple on a date to a midnight screening at the 8th Street Playhouse in New York where they get stoned and marvel at everyone dragged up, singing and dancing along with each musical number.
I became obsessed with the weirdness and the chorus to Time Warp and finally got to see it properly for the first time at the same movie theatre in Manhattan at the tail end of the 1980s. For many of us every frame of the film is burnt into our minds from repeated viewings, including the lightning-backed silhouette of the Frankenstein Place, the gothic mansion where most of the action takes place. And it's a real, actual place. Sort of.
The history of the film is brilliantly detailed in the documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, which hits cinemas this October and spends a lot of time looking at what happened in the hallways of Oakley Court, on a narrow twist of the Thames way out west by Legoland.
For a long time, this place was a notoriously miserable conference hotel. Then, in 2021, it was taken over by interiors guru Alex Eagle and a team from Soho House and became somewhere you might actually want to stay when you weren't being forced to listen to presentations on third quarter sales figures.
Rocky Horror is only cool to Gen X and Boomers who found it subversive when they first encountered it and I doubt Oakley Court will ever be hosting themed events alongside the weekend-only omakase menus with chef Akira Shimizu.
But for those of us who still find it a passé pleasure, arriving at the front doors to see the same gargoyles and doorbell that were there for Brad and Janet and then walking into the hallway where Magenta slides down the bannister, is a thrill. I was surprised to recognise so many architectural details in the rooms and stairways, but then it's a pretty distinctive building. And I've seen that film a lot of times.
So what's it like as a hotel today? Well, a little strange. Much of it feels very Soho House: you can eat and drink in pretty much any lounge you can find a giant sofa in, and the clientele fits accordingly. It's cocktails and laptops. But then, that's the case anywhere fancy within 90 minutes of London now.
There are levels of exclusivity: the River House dining space is only open Thursday to Sunday, for hotel guests and members only. The rest of the hotel's bars get a lot of business from locals. It's a huge place, sprawling through particularly lovely countryside. There's an indoor pool and gym that feel like they didn't quite make it through Alex Eagle's makeover, but which are large and functional. There are lots of event spaces and a general feeling of leisure – dogs and children roam freely and people wander by the river clutching glasses of rosé.
I stayed in a room in the main Mansion House, which you'll want to as well, for maximum space, gothic window details and four-poster beds. The interiors are luxe in that modern, expensive, white bouclé wool and marble coffee table kind of way. Some things felt like they were letting the place's full potential down: an abandoned minibar fridge in the hall by my room and uncollected room plates and glasses elsewhere.
Service ranged from fine to impressive, but better than at many Soho Houses I've spent time at. The general House menu has something for everyone: £98 tins of caviar, a burger and various toasties, chicken salad, hummus and crudités and a £35 miso marinated black cod that was good enough, but no longer feels like a premium dish.
Things to love: the Oakley negroni infused with mint and pineapple, which gives it a lovely fresh twist. The breakfast buffet, with ready-made open rye sandwiches of egg mayo, tomato and cream cheese, and peanut butter with banana and maple. And everything about the building. I spent ages after dark, wandering around taking photographs of the place from every angle. Yes, it was familiar from Rocky Horror.
But there's nothing fake-feeling about it and it's had multiple starring roles. It was a private house for the longest time, built in 1859 and later Grade II listed. It featured in the original 1954 St Trinian's movie and numerous Hammer horrors (including The Reptile, my all-time favourite). Even if you've never seen the place on film before, it feels eerily, pleasingly familiar.
Famously The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped when it first came out and it took the midnight screening audiences to give it a second life. It ended up making $166 million. It's great to see Oakley Court getting a second (or even third or fourth or more) chance too.
