Roux at Skindles, the brasserie built on the site of the once world famous Skindles Hotel on the riverbank at Taplow, opens for business for the first time next Tuesday. It promises to be a historic occasion marked by the popping of a barrel load of corks.

The much anticipated launch of the new style of enterprise for father and son Michelin star chefs Michel and Alain Roux from The Waterside Inn at Bray was preceded on Friday by the opening of the new footbridge to link the Buckinghamshire side of the riverbank on that reach of the Thames with the Berkshire side by Boulters Lock.

For residents coming to live at Berkeley Homes’ Taplow Riverside development of which Roux at Skindles is part, the footbridge will provide a short-cut to Maidenhead town centre and the station from where Crossrail will to cut the journey time into London’s West End after the service opens in December next year.

It will also provide a two-way expressway for diners and walkers from Maidenhead to nip over to Taplow and enjoy all the future amenities coming on stream as a result of Berkeley’s overall regeneration of the riverbank area on the Bucks side.

Roux at Skindles will be open six days a week. When the weather’s good, early birds who turn up for a morning coffee and breakfast bun at the ground floor brasserie will be able to wander out onto to restaurant’s riverside terrace.

Upstairs on the first floor will be a club style cocktail bar with a balcony overlooking the river. Up another flight of stairs will be a private dining room with seats for 14 for private parties and meetings. People watchers are in for a field day.

“Customers will be welcome to drop in for a coffee, beer, cocktail or a bite as they choose and stay ten minutes or two hours,” says Alain. He will oversee the day-to-day operation.

“We are not aiming for another Michelin star restaurant. It will be an all day menu. We want to focus on quality at prices to suit every pocket.”

“This casual, fresh style of cooking is missing in the area,” Michel observes, “it will offer something exciting and new. It is the perfect addition to our family without compromising our offering at The Waterside Inn.”

General manger at the brasserie will be French-born Maxime Walkowiak who worked as head sommelier at The Waterside Inn for more than eight years.

Head chef Raj Holuss is from Mauritius. With his background in French cooking he has been Alain’s No 2 chef in the restaurant a mile or so downstream for over ten years.

It’s not the first venture of this sort for Michel. He founded Brasserie Benoit’s in London in the early Seventies before he moved to Bray to serve the crème de la creme.

Meanwhile, there’s a constant flow of new and converted properties coming on the market at Taplow Riverside. The current selection includes a reimagined Victorian four bedroom house with a private mooring two minutes from Roux at Skindles (£1,999,995) and a former mill owner’s house now divided into three.

Fleurets senior associate Elysia Wilson-Gunn says there’s strong demand from cash buyers for freeholds in Bucks priced less than £500,000. The company is one of the leading agencies for restaurants, pubs, hotels and other properties connected with the leisure industry.

“The area is popular with London commuters with the disposable income for dining out,” the agent points out. “There’s also demand for leasehold properties when the business can demonstrate strong trading accounts.”