Hatfield House & Welwyn
This part of Hertfordshire pairs a genuine slice of Tudor and Jacobean history with a very different kind of planning altogether: an early-20th-century experiment in building a town from scratch around open space and greenery, a few miles up the road.
Hatfield House was built in the early 17th century by Robert Cecil, chief minister to James I, largely from materials salvaged from the older Royal Palace of Hatfield that stood on the same site — one wing of that older palace still survives next to the house. It was at the old palace that a young Princess Elizabeth spent much of her childhood, and where, in 1558, she is said to have learned she had become queen. The house and its gardens remain in the Cecil family and open to visitors for part of the year.
A few miles east, Welwyn Garden City was laid out from 1920 by Ebenezer Howard as the second of his "garden city" developments, built on the principle that a town could combine the practical benefits of urban life with green space and good planning rather than sprawling unchecked. Its wide tree-lined avenues, the Campus and Parkway, and the Georgian-style shopping parade around Howardsgate are still recognisably the product of that original plan, and the town is now a conservation area in its own right.
Where to Stay near Hatfield & Welwyn
- Beales Hotel — a contemporary hotel in Hatfield, opposite the Galleria shopping centre.
- The Comet Hotel — a Grade II listed Art Deco building in Hatfield, refurbished in recent years.
- Best Western Homestead Court Hotel — set in landscaped grounds just outside Welwyn Garden City centre.
- Premier Inn Welwyn Garden City — a budget chain option handy for the station and town centre.
Getting there
Both Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City sit on the East Coast Main Line, with fast trains to London King's Cross, and both are close to the A1(M).