RH England: RH Has Officially Expanded Overseas

Mar 10, 2023

By Tim Nelson

Today, RH unveils RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park (formerly Aynhoe Park), the bold first step in the company's plans for global expansion. Despite having garnered widespread consumer renown thanks not only to a comprehensive selection of high-end home furnishings, but also with the grandeur of their gallery showrooms, which frequently feature chic restaurants as an add-on to the shopping experience, RH hasn't had any kind of physical footprint outside North America—until now. Billed as a "bespoke design and hospitality experience," the latest opening takes the brand's love for fine design, good food, and historic architecture to a whole new level.

To mark their arrival across the pond, they’re pulling out all the stops. RH England will make full use of the historic Aynho Park's 55,000-square-feet sitting on a 73-acre property outside of Banbury, opening up this 17th-century temple of Late Georgian and Continental Baroque architecture to the public for the very first time. Throughout an interior that was extensively remodeled in the early 19th century by Sir John Soane, a famed purveyor of neo-classicism, visitors will find both "luxury home furnishings collections from internationally renowned designers [and] rare art, antiques, and artifacts from around the world."

The Architecture and Design Library at RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park.

Featuring 60 rooms scattered across a main house as well as east and west wings, RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park offers plenty of ways to engage with the past, present, and perhaps future of design. That includes an exhibition centered on Sir John Soane curated in partnership with his namesake London museum, as well as an architecture and design library featuring a comprehensive collection of modern, vintage, and even out of print books celebrating design thinking that spans back as far as 2,000 years.

The new gallery will also include an exhibition space dedicated to British architect Sir John Soane, who remodeled Anyho Park in the early 19th century, as well as a special showcase for interior designer and hotelier Anouska Hempel, who has a collection in the works with the company.

Naturally, there's no shortage of ways to engage with contemporary design and make it wholly your own. In the former servants’ quarters, one will find the latest in luxury home furnishings from RH's Interiors, Contemporary, and Modern lines. The east wing houses the RH Interior Design Studio, an "interactive space" full of presentation rooms, high-tech flourishes, and a design library showcasing a breadth of textiles, furniture, and lighting finishes.

The Orangery is one of six eateries at RH England, The Gallery at Anyho Park.

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No RH experience on this scale would be complete without a bite to eat, and RH England plans to please palates with a litany of appetizing options. The Orangery, a space brimming with natural light, is where guests can enjoy a live-fire dining experience while lounging on Italian merino wool velvet seating. Alternatively, The Conservatory (set to open this fall) presents American Bistro fare, while those who’d like to dine al fresco can sample the charcuterie and wood-fired pizza of The Loggia. Those in search of something lighter (or short on time after roaming the showrooms) can turn to The Juicery for beverages and baguettes. Tea and wine lounges in the main house round out RH England's gastronomic offerings, and an organic garden will provide seasonal vegetables and herbs meant for on-site consumption.

Though renovating and repurposing an old landmark is nothing new for RH (see their conversion of Boston's Museum of Natural History, San Francisco's Bethlehem Steel Building, and Chicago's Three Arts Club into RH showrooms), RH England at Aynho Park sets a new standard in the brand's efforts to fuse the best of design and hospitality, now on a global scale.