Thames River Cruise

You get a private boat on the upper Thames for 30 to 140 guests, with the food, bar and crew supplied by one operator, so a team dinner, client evening or Christmas party needs no separate caterer or venue hire. Boats leave from Caversham Pier in Reading, a short way upstream of Caversham Bridge, and can also pick up and set down guests at landing stages towards Sonning, Mapledurham, Goring and Henley. Thames Rivercruise is a family business that says it started in 1973 with a single open launch running between Caversham and Mapledurham, and it now runs both scheduled trips and private charters.

Event spaces and capacities

For a private charter you hire a whole boat rather than a room. The operator names two main charter boats, the twin-deck Caversham Princess for parties of up to 140 and the single-deck Caversham Lady for up to 60, plus the Devon Belle, a Dunkirk Little Ship it offers for smaller and more informal hires. It does not publish deck areas or capacities by layout, so the table gives the party sizes it states.

Boat	Decks	Published capacity	What the operator says about it
Caversham Princess	Two	Parties of up to 140	Full bar and galley, silver service dining, dance floor, upper deck roof that rolls back in summer, air-conditioned lower saloon
Caversham Lady	One	Up to 60 (30 to 60 on the weddings page)	Bar and dance floor, large windows, open foredeck, level access and an accessible toilet
Devon Belle	Open top deck and foredeck	Not published	Onboard bar, offered for drinks receptions, groups and jazz afternoons

Capacities as published by the operator on its private charter page and Christmas party page, checked 13 November 2026. Its weddings page gives up to 60 guests for a seated wedding breakfast and up to 120 for a reception or evening party.

All the boats have a bar, most have a full galley, and the operator says central heating lets them sail all year. Private charter runs year round, with May to September and December as high season and January to April, October and November as low season. Its 2026 Christmas packages are four-hour exclusive charters priced per head, from £39.50 with a DJ (minimum 30 guests) to £75 for a festive dinner and dance (minimum 50).

Getting there and parking

You can tell guests to drive to one postcode. The operator gives RG1 8BD and the what3words address clap.star.judges for Caversham Pier, which sits behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel and is reached from Richfield Avenue into Thameside Promenade. Parking is in the Thameside Promenade pay and display car park run by Reading Borough Council, which the operator warns can fill at busy times. It says coaches have easy access to the pier. The boats can also tie up alongside riverside hotels and restaurants, so you can end a cruise at a dinner venue instead of returning to Caversham.

Catering, AV and accommodation

You deal with one team for food and drink. Charter menus, from afternoon tea and street food to a four-course dinner with paired wines served silver service, are chosen and paid for at booking, and outside food and drink is not allowed. The operator can cater for allergies but will not change menus to personal taste, and payment on board is by card only. Every boat holds a premises licence from Reading Borough Council and the bar is run under a Challenge 25 policy. The site mentions a DJ, live bands, jazz and casino nights, but publishes no presentation AV list, and there are no bedrooms on board.

What to ask before you book

• Which boat you will get, and whether the Caversham Lady is free on your date if a guest uses a wheelchair, since the operator says its other boats are older or multi-deck and motorised wheelchairs cannot board.
• Whether the seating plan you want fits on the Caversham Princess, as the up to 140 figure is a party size, not a seated dinner count.
• What screen, microphone and power the boat has if you plan a talk or presentation on board.
• How the 14-day final payment and the six-week notice for a deposit refund fit your sign-off process, and what happens if flooding or a river closure stops the cruise, which the terms say is not refunded.
• Whether your route needs locks such as Caversham, Sonning or Shiplake, and how long that adds to the timings for your evening.

Related on Events Review

• Conference and event venues in Reading
• Reading Town Hall
• Unusual event venues
• The Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh
• SS Great Britain and Bristol Dockyards
• Event venues in Oxford
• Oxford Town Hall
• Turn venue accessibility claims into a usable event plan
• Choose the venue around the event, not the headline capacity

Sources: private charter, fleet and boat pages, weddings, Christmas parties, group trips, FAQs, terms and conditions and about us on thamesrivercruise.co.uk, checked 13 November 2026.