A HUGE estate with beautiful grounds, tea room and even a museum could be set to completely transform.
Waterperry Gardens in Oxford has submitted plans for a complete change-up including the building of a brand-new tea room additions to the courtyard.
Waterperry Gardens is a popular spot thanks to its beautiful ornamental gardens, award-winning tea rooms, garden shop, gift barn, gallery and museum.
It even has an outdoor amphitheatre for opera, theatre and music with performances through the summer months.
It’s visited year-round thanks to its various flower and plant displays with lots saying it’s still worth a trip out of season in autumn.
One visitor said: “We have visited Waterperry several times and in the early autumn the aster borders are at their best.”
Another added: “Lovely little place. Great gardens (even in late October there was still plenty of colour). Nice cafe. Good shop and gallery.”
A third wrote: “This is difficult to describe how wonderful these gardens are. Even at the beginning of September they were full of bloom.”
But the Waterperry Gardens could well transform as it submits plans to build a brand new home for its tea room – and reconfigure the site.
The plans say “there is an urgent need to replace the existing catering building with a new facility that serves both the current and future needs of the site“.
The building which houses the tearooms was a former laboratory which has “exceeded its lifespan.”
A new design by Cowper Griffith Architects revealed a much brighter building with large windows.
Other plans include relocating the car park to the west of the picnic lawn and seating on a courtyard between the museum and the new building.
These proposals are currently in its consultation period – so there’s plenty of time to see Waterperry Gardens as it is now.
Anyone visiting will definitely want to pop into its award-winning tea room.
Last year it won Afternoon Tea of the Year 2025 by the Garden Centre Catering Awards.
At lunchtimes it serves up jacket potatoes , soups, salads and homemade cakes.
It also has two afternoon tea options; Waterperry Tea or Celebration Tea.
Each comes with a selection of cakes, homemade jam, scones and clotted cream, sandwiches and mini vegetarian quiche tart, along with loose leaf tea, coffee or Prosecco.
Visitors can also pop into its on-site museum which reveals what rural life was like 100 years ago, and kids can enjoy the play outdoor play area too.