Visiting Hatfield House has been on my list of day trips from London for a long time. The peaceful park surrounding the house offers great walking opportunities. Moreover, the estate is conveniently close to Hatfield railway station. The walk from the station to the house takes you along fine views of the oldest part of Hatfield village, its cute countryside houses and church.
We left home around 1000 on a sunny Sunday and combined the visit to the house and park with a walk over an old train line. We finished the day with dinner in nearby St Albans. Here is all you need to know to plan this leisurely day trip.
Hatfield House history
Let’s start with some history. Hatfield house has been owned and inhabited by the same family for over 400 years up until today, which is rather special. When visiting the house, you’ll find traces of the current inhabitants in most rooms, family photos and children’s toys alike. It’s an incredibly picturesque location – the list of films and TV shows that have featured the Hatfield House estate is there to prove it.
Hatfield House interior
We started our visit with the interior. To be honest, I was expecting to make a quick tour around the rooms and head to the garden and parkland as soon as possible to enjoy the sunshine. However, we spent close to two hours inside the house, taking in the rooms and treasures. The Grand Staircase is a definite highlight. It has animals and cherubs carved in wood to an amazing level of detail.
The next item that caught my attention is this collection of Delft blue flower vases. The two large vases on each end of the row are specifically designed to contain tulips, once considered the most expensive flowers one could buy. Having these full vases on display was therefore a sign of significant wealth.
Hatfield House is full of treasures, but the King James I drawing room is absolutely packed with them. The room owes its name to the life-size sculpture of the king that can be admired (he was in fact a rather short chap). Interestingly, some of the features in this room are fairly recent additions. The tapestries covering the walls behind the paintings were brought back from storage by the current inhabitants only a couple of years ago and some of the furniture was acquired in the last decade. It does give the room a warm and homely feeling.
The Long Gallery, more than 50m long, is impressive. The gold leaf ceiling is only the second of its kind, inspired by the Doge’s Palace in Venice.
What I loved about Hatfield House is that everything is in a perfect state and the interior is clearly still constantly evolving. I love visiting country houses but am often saddened at the state of despair in which some of them are. Hatfield House is perfectly kept.
Parkland and gardens
A few sections of the garden are not open to the public and can only be admired through the windows of the house. The parts that are, remain worth a visit. We admired the remaining wing of the Old Palace and got fine views of the house from every possible angle (and enjoyed an ice cream in the courtyard).
We decided to further stretch the legs and explore the estate. The surrounding parkland provides options for several kilometres of walks and relaxing. We had taken a pique-nique and found a perfect spot by the water to sit down.
The Alban Way
Exploring the parkland was tiring, but we still had more plans. Hatfield village has got another interesting feature, besides the house and garden. It is indeed the starting point of the Alban Way. The disused railway between Hatfield and St Albans is no longer served, but has instead been turned into a very pleasant, 10km long trail that is used intensively by walkers, cyclists and runners alike.
Finding the start of the trail is a slightly messy undertaking and involves crossing a noisy motorway bridge, but once you’re set, the walk is easy to follow. Along the way, you can spot remains of the former stations and halts, some of which are very nicely maintained. Others however, are merely overgrown platforms.
Dinner in St Albans
By the time we reached the Roman town of St Andrews, we were hungry (thankfully we had a dinner reservation coming up) and skipped most of the sights. The cathedral, Roman remnants and Verulamium park are highly recommended, even though we only trotted past them.
We ended our day in the St Michael’s Manor hotel with dinner. The food was amazing and surprisingly affordable (I have clearly gotten too used to London prices). We caught a late train back to London, which again took us just under an hour.
