Luxury Country House Hotels Near London: A Night at The Grove, Hertfordshire

Three hundred acres, an 18th-century mansion and a sand beach in the walled garden – a stay at the estate that proved a proper country house hotel could exist within the M25.

The Grove is one of the few genuinely convincing country house hotels within reach of London. Built around 1720 for Charles Buck, it became the seat of the Earls of Clarendon and later the Villiers family and opened as a hotel in 2002 under the Levy family’s ownership.

The restoration was serious rather than cosmetic: the Grade II-listed mansion kept its bones while contemporary wings went up alongside, and the gardens were laid out by Chelsea Gold Medallist Michael Balston which shows in the way formal planting dissolves into woodland rather than stopping at a line. Three hundred acres do the rest.

There are 214 rooms and suites, divided between the historic Mansion and the modern West Wing. It is a real choice of atmosphere rather than a hierarchy: the Mansion carries the period detail, while the West Wing is cleaner-lined and looks out over the gardens.

Staying in a ground-floor Deluxe Suite which opened directly onto a semi-private terrace and able to step outside without passing through a lobby. Inside a sitting area with table and settee, a king bed and a bathroom that was the best-considered part of the room: freestanding bath, walk-in shower, luxury robe, slippers and Bamford toiletries, exactly the right brand for a house with its own kitchen garden.

Arriving during school holidays at full occupancy check-in was busy, the lobby lively with a steady flow of arrivals. The team moved people through it well, but it is worth knowing that the calm the estate promises begins at your own door rather than at reception. Once the suite door closed, the noise of arrival vanished entirely.

Dining here is deliberately plural rather than tiered. The Glasshouse works live cooking stations as theatre; The Stables serves a British menu with a terrace over the golf course; Madhu’s brings Indian cooking into the mansion itself; the Lounges handle afternoon tea and a surprisingly accomplished sushi counter; and the Sequoia Kitchen feeds the spa. With Skewd in the Walled Garden, serving award-winning Anatolian cuisine with a contemporary twist. One dish on my visit did not land, and it was noticed, addressed quickly and without fuss – a response that told me more about the operation than a flawless plate would have. Breakfast the following morning was ordered to the room: prompt, hot, precisely as requested, and eaten on the terrace. Faultless.

The Walled Garden is the estate’s best idea — a Victorian enclosure now holding Ralph’s Beach, an actual expanse of sand with palms, loungers and cabanas available for private hire, alongside a heated outdoor pool, croquet lawn, tennis courts and the kitchen garden that supplies the chefs. It is open in the warmer months only, which is worth building a booking around. Elsewhere, Sequoia Spa runs to 18 treatment rooms, an indoor pool and studios, while the 18-hole championship course, designed by Kyle Phillips, has hosted both the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship and the 2016 British Masters.

From May to September there is also an Everyman outdoor cinema. Watching “The Greatest Showman” under an evening sky with popcorn in hand was, unexpectedly, the most memorable thing I did here – a simple idea executed with real flair.

Families are unusually well served. Behind the Walled Garden sits Anouska’s Kids’ Club, an OFSTED-registered lodge for two- to nine-year-olds with its own secure garden, play park and kitchen turning out fresh snacks; days run on arts and crafts, Lego, role play and story time. Other activities include archery, axe throwing in the woods, birds of prey landing on a gloved hand, mini Land Rovers, bikes for every age across the 300 acres, holiday tennis and rugby camps, and the musical instruments dotted along Asher’s Woodland Trail. Babysitting can be arranged for evenings.

The Grove also runs a substantial corporate operation, with extensive function space sensibly separated from the guest wings; groups and leisure guests barely register one another. It merits proper scrutiny, and we will be reviewing the MICE offering separately.

What stays with you is the sheer sense of space. The Grove doesn’t need to pretend to be remote; it simply is. Time your stay for the months when the Walled Garden is open and you see the estate at its most enchanting, though it’s easy to imagine its beauty in every season.