The Building
A coaching inn since the 1400s
The Kings Arms stands on one of England's best-preserved medieval High Streets. The building dates to the fifteenth century, when Old Amersham was a prosperous market town on one of the main coaching routes between London and the West.
For centuries, travellers stopping between London and Oxford would have rested here, their horses changed in the stableyard behind. The exposed timber beams, the deep window sills, and the scale of the coaching entrance all speak to a building designed to accommodate people on the move.
Today, the building is Grade II listed. The Kings Arms has been carefully maintained and extended over the years, but the core of what you experience — the beams, the proportions, the sense of age — is entirely authentic.
A Timeline
Six hundred years in brief
The Kings Arms is established as an inn on Old Amersham's High Street, serving travellers on the road between London and the West. Old Amersham holds a royal market charter dating to 1200 and is already a prosperous town.
As coach travel expands, The Kings Arms becomes an important staging post. The wide coaching entrance and substantial stableyard serve the horses and travellers of the day. The inn's scale and position on the High Street make it the natural stopping point in Amersham.
The Metropolitan Railway reaches Amersham, initially threatening to change the character of the town. Old Amersham — the medieval town in the valley — largely resists change. The Kings Arms continues to serve as a hotel and inn throughout the Victorian era.
Amersham becomes the terminus of the Metropolitan Line on London Underground, cementing Old Amersham's connection to London while preserving its own distinct identity and unhurried pace.
Old Amersham's High Street — and The Kings Arms — features in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy that would become one of the most successful British films of all time. The film introduces Old Amersham to a global audience.
The Kings Arms today is a 4-star hotel with 35 en-suite rooms, a restaurant and bar, and No. 40 Townhouse — a self-contained serviced property for those who want more space and privacy. The same building. The same welcome.
Film & Television
A High Street with screen credit
Old Amersham's medieval High Street has been used as a filming location many times over the years, but perhaps most famously in the 1994 Richard Curtis film Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell.
The film used the High Street — and The Kings Arms itself — as a backdrop for several scenes, drawn by the authenticity of the architecture and the untouched character of the town.
Other productions have followed, and Old Amersham continues to attract location scouts looking for a genuinely historic English High Street that hasn't been spoiled by modernity.
The Kings Arms Today
History you can stay in
We think there's something genuinely special about staying in a building that has been welcoming guests for six hundred years. The history isn't a gimmick — it's in the fabric of the place. And we've taken care to make The Kings Arms somewhere that works as a 21st-century hotel while honouring what came before.
Come and see for yourself.