Fancy a pint at The Duck?

Jonny and Madalina Bramwell took over The Three Horseshoes pub in May and after their successful start there, and one lighthearted conversation later; are now taking on a second challenge – The Duck!

Their iconic corner building in central Henley has been known by many guises and, depending upon how long you have been a local, you may recognise it as “the one that was The Duke”, “Pachangas”, or even…”the one that was The Queen’s Head” – or others in between! Jonny and Madalina however, are determined to put The Duck back into what used to be known as Duck Street, by building a pub that local people want to visit, but more importantly feel at home in and want to return to.

Having lived in Henley for 10 years, the couple frequently visited Pachangas themselves – particularly before starting their family – and have lots of happy memories of meals there. “I’ve worked in hospitality for 20 years now and seen lots of things come and go, but I’ve had my eye on the building for a while, wondering if I could do something. After taking over The Three Horseshoes on the Reading Road, we were chatting with our contact at Brakspears and they asked if we’d like to take it on…and here we are!” Jonny said.

Currently work is going on inside to make the interior more pubby, with a new colour palette and some changes to the layout and seating. “We really want people to walk through the door and know they are in a pub! We want them to feel welcome and like they can sit all day and just relax. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, so I immediately loved the idea of people being able to say “I’m just off down The Duck!” Jonny explained.

Next week will see an exterior facelift with sign painting going on – including some graffiti style artwork, as well as the installation of a shuffleboard and eventually a bar billiards inside – although this has been proving a hard one to source having found they stopped making them in the 1960s!

“We are keeping some of the fixtures and fittings as there was some really high end stuff, but we want to open the space up more, creating lots of little areas for people and more light. You’ll be able to see in again too. The welcome will be warm as we pride ourselves on our service. The team at the Horseshoes are brilliant and all work so hard. Some of them will work here too as we build a new team. In fact, we put out a social media message inviting applications for staff and got over 100 back in 24 hours! It’s a great industry but you have to provide good training too. We have high expectations but I know we can deliver.”

“We aim to be open later in September, but we won’t be a finished article then as the pub will continue to evolve. We always like to hear what people think and listen to ideas – it’s important to create what people want. That’s what we’ve done at The Horseshoes. We have community partnerships and have already built a loyal clientele. A number of times now people have said to us “Thank you for giving us our pub back!” and that means a lot.”

Since their recent launch on social media, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive Madalina explained. “Everyone seems to want us to succeed and hopefully the positive comments will turn into happy visitors.”

As well as the range of drinks and bar games, there will also be food served from 12-9pm and later on in the evening, live music. “Hospitality is the best industry there is, I love it. There’s no AI and lots of social interaction. We want to build a pub for everyone with a warm welcome and great service – that’s the aim!”