Events, launches and location hire
Royal Maritime House sits on the Ryde seafront with 180 degrees of Solent in front of it. A restaurant, a garden bar, two private dining rooms and a kitchen run by Chef Robert Thompson MBE, all in one place on the seafront.
Most venues give you a room. This one comes with a beach.
The restaurant is open to the public Tuesday to Sunday in June, July and August and Thursday to Sunday from September to May. The rest of the week the house is quiet, and that’s when it works best for brands: a launch lunch for the people who’ll sell your product, a shoot with the tide out, a dinner downstairs for twenty that nobody forgets.
We’re a working restaurant, not an events venue that happens to serve food. The people who look after your day are the ones who run the dining room every weekend, and everything comes out of the same kitchen. If something you want won’t work here, we’ll tell you early.
What people use it forEvery brief is different, but most start as one of these
Pick the closest and tell us the rest. A paragraph is plenty to start with.
The spacesNumbers are for a seated meal. Standing receptions work differently, so tell us what you have in mind
The house, drawn floor by floor: the terrace and garden bar above the beach, the restaurant and bar with the Solent in the windows, and The Cellar below with its two private rooms and the kitchen next door.
Whether the whole house is free depends on the date, so tell us when you are thinking of and it is the first thing we will check.
Front door to sea wall
Seated or standing: ask us
The restaurant, the bar, the garden and terrace and both Cellar rooms, with the team and the kitchen to match. Whether the whole house is free depends on the date, so tell us when you are thinking of and it is the first thing we will check.
The dining room
Numbers to suit the brief
Blue walls, colourful art and big windows onto the Solent. Drinks at the sea-view bar, then lunch at the tables by the windows, and nobody has to go far.
Outside, above the beach
Numbers to suit the brief
The terrace runs to the sea wall, and the beach is on the other side of it. There is a garden bar under a living wall and an outdoor kitchen on the deck, built with our partners at Vlaze. The weather has the final say out here, so every outdoor plan comes with an inside one.
Behind the pass
By arrangement
For a demonstration, a recipe film or a shoot that needs working steel and real flames. What we can offer depends on service, so talk to us before you plan around it.
The Cellar
Up to 20 at one table
The larger room: one long table for twenty, a private bar, double sliding doors and a view into the wine cellar. It is the room people photograph.
The Cellar
Up to 16 at one table
The chef’s table. A window onto the kitchen lets your guests watch dinner being cooked, and the wine cellar is on the other side.
Christmas for companies
A room of your own for 8 to 36
Menu and drinks agreed in advance and invoiced to the company.
Christmas at RTFilming and photographyThe practical bits
Nothing here was designed for a camera, which is why it photographs well. The dining room has real colour. The Cellar has candlelight and a chequerboard table. Outside there’s sand, a palm, a sea wall and a big sky that doesn’t look the same two days running.
Our own photographer is in most months, so we know which rooms catch the light and when. Send us the shot list and we’ll tell you straight whether the house can give you what you need.
Food, drink and the teamThe house comes with its people
The kitchen, the bar and the floor team come with it.
Trains from London Waterloo run to Portsmouth Harbour, where the FastCat crosses to Ryde Pier Head in 22 minutes. The hovercraft from Southsea lands on the Esplanade. Both are a short walk from our door, so your guests can arrive without a car.
If people are driving, the car ferries cross from Portsmouth and Southampton. There’s no parking on site, but there are two public car parks within two minutes’ walk, one directly opposite. If your guests are staying over, ask us and we will point you to places nearby.
Royal Maritime House, 17 St Thomas Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight PO33 2DL
Get directionsHow it worksThree steps to a date
What it is, roughly when, and roughly how many. A paragraph is plenty to start with.
If you can get here, come and see it before you commit. If you can’t, we’ll talk it through with you and send pictures of the spaces you’re considering.
You get a proposal in writing: the spaces, the timings, the menu and the price, so you know exactly what you’re agreeing to.
Rather talk? 01983 526118 or info@robertthompson.co.uk.
Ask us. It depends on the date and what you are planning, so tell us both and we will come back with what is possible.
The Cellar seats up to 20 in The 1945 and up to 16 in The 1982. For the restaurant, the terrace or the whole house it depends on the layout, seated, standing or a mix, so send us your numbers and we will tell you what works.
Not on site. There are two public car parks within two minutes’ walk of Royal Maritime House, one of them directly opposite.
Yes. The FastCat from Portsmouth Harbour crosses to Ryde Pier Head in 22 minutes, and the hovercraft from Southsea lands on the Esplanade. Both are a short walk from the door.
Every outdoor plan has an inside version. The dining room and The Cellar are always there to fall back on.
Tell us who you would like to bring and we will talk it through.
As early as you can. The earlier you tell us, the more of the house we can keep for you.
A rough idea is enough. We’ll come back to you, usually with a couple of questions and a suggestion or two.
