The Best Wedding And Event Planners in Alton, Hampshire, United Kingdom (2025)

A lovely house and gardens located in the heart of beautiful Selborne village and commemorating the work of 18th century naturalist, Gilbert White. The house is interesting and details the work of White and other explorers and naturalists. The gardens are extensive and quite easy to walk around, but not formal as they were designed to encourage and support the local insect and animal wildlife. There is also a nice cafeteria with inside and outside seating. Well worth a visit.

It was such a wonderful day out. There is so much to see, and there are some nice little extras for younger children as well. The house is quirky but full of history. Cafe was nice and great service from staff. Do not pay in the carpark as when you enter the house itself, you pop in your reg for free parking. But if you do end up paying for parking, they allow you to still add your reg to extend your stay, so not all bad. It took us 2 hours with a cafe stop first. Gardens are lovely as well and have little areas to explore. Highly recommend.

Really lovely day out - where possible in a listed building accsess is good but would suit ambulatory wheelchair users better than full time as some of the exhibition space in the house is up stairs - there is a computer with a video of the upstairs spaces , downstairs. Accessible toilet in the cafe & a modified toilet with more room and grab bar in the old house.

We spent about 1:20 in the museum and house, reading the informative signs on Gilbert White and the Oates family. We were surprised that it was about 50/50 between ecologist Gilbert White and the later Oates family (who purchased the house and were explorers/nature-lovers in their own right). Though there wasn’t tons of information about Gilbert White’s personal life, it was quite informative on his works, people he interacted with or later impacted, such as Oates, Thomas Bell, Darwin. Gardens: We weren’t able to spend much time given our schedule, but looked like an extensive (dog-friendly) walk. Ticket prices are a little steep, but if wanting to learn about his life, impact in ecology, and walk the gardens it is a nice afternoon out. Cafe has hot drinks, cakes, and a handful (2-3?) of lunch options. Indoor and outdoor seating. Car park behind house. It is a paid lot, but if visiting house just include registration details at visitor desk for free parking. Facilities: Clean toilets in cafe area and inside house.

Good food, and a nice place to go amd relax and meet up with good friends

Have had great Sunday lunches everytime we visit, the staff are very helpful and efficient . Sunday today so again the Conservative club it is for lunch.

Jim and the team are fantastic. They always go the extra mile to ensure things go well. Thoroughly recommended.

Fantastic atmosphere, welcoming staff and plenty of friendly locals to have a chat with

Came here on retreat with our Year 11s. Lovely place, lovely people, lovely grounds. And nice to wander around and find nooks and crannies that hide a Norman Chapel, beautiful plaster work, many many candles and really good food. And the daffodils are pretty good as well.

One of the beautiful English Heritage in Farnham to visit. Carpark and visit was free or charge. It take less than half an hour to visit. Staff were so attentive and friendly and happy to explain the place to you at the entrance. We visited on a Sunday and there was a Wedding Event in their Hotel which was nice to see people dressed up and few of them came on top of the castle to take photos. The only recommendation I would have is for their public toilets, with no hand wash filled up unfortunately was a put off thing.

We attended a wedding there last summer and it was fantastic. The views are nice and the surroundings make for a wonderful day. Well worth a visit when appropriate.

Visited for a small conference. The hall was surprisingly attractive and has plenty of space.

Great place to go for events. I was there for a cake and book sale to fund my friend to go to a part of Africa and help children in school there. She is an occupational therapist specialising in children. It was really good and easy to book the venue. There were also a bunch of clubs on there as well such as a children's rock music club. I hope this review was helpful and if so please like the review. Thanks!

Great venue. Lots of space. Use of Av equipment. Area for refreshments too.

We held our wedding reception here, on can not recommend it enough, Simon and the team were amazing with a professional can do attitude delivering the wedding of our dreams. The value for money is in the setting, the layout, flexibility and the extra touches already in place to make the wedding go well. We loved all the fairy lights, barrels, easels and decor all available for us to use included in the hiring fee. The quality of all the food, service and team were first class. The reception was even packed up for us to collect which made it so much easier to do the following day!! Thank you to everyone at departure lounge for achieving our dream wedding!

We held our wedding here in June 2024 and highly recommend it. Simon and his staff were amazing, helpful and very organised. We had the BBQ and the food was great with lots of options. The whole venue is very well priced and well worth it. You get total freedom with what you want to do and Simon is very quick to respond with any queries you have. All of our guests have been saying how great the venue and staff were on the day. I couldn't recommend this place high enough.

We chose the departure lounge as our wedding venue and had the most amazing time. Family and friends all unanimously said what a wonderful place this was and how beautiful the scenery was. Simon was incredible working towards the wedding, he was extremely transparent with his services and open to what we wanted to do. Extremely good value for money too. We had set-up time a couple of days before so we didn't feel too rushed. Great food - go for the Hog Roast. On the day, he and his team were extremely pleasant and working round all of us to make the most special of days, special. Nothing was too much to ask. I would seriously recommend this place as a wedding venue. I've got in mind some birthday parties I would like to host in the future here too. Thank you DL for making our day! If I had to, (I hope not), I would do all of it again, there.

We had our wedding at The Departure Lounge Cafe and it was the best decision we made! Simon was so accommodating to all our wishes and needs for the day, we were able to create the day we had hoped for! Being able to have the venue three days prior then if day was really ideal, we were able to decorate and take our time setting up our wedding the way we wanted, Simon and his team did do a lot to help too! Our guests have not stopped talking about how amazing our day was from the food to the location to the atmosphere. We also got the cutest handmade gift, which was placed at our table setting. Thank you Simon and your team for helping create the best day ever!