Hitchin

World : Europe : Western Europe : United Kingdom : England : East Anglia : Hertfordshire : Hitchin

Hitchin is a town with 30,000 inhabitants 35 miles north of London in the county of Hertfordshire. Hitchin is an old market town first mentioned 1,000 years ago.

Understand

Hitchin is a small historic market town in the north of Hertfordshire. It is twinned with the German town Bingen and the French town Nuits St Georges. Hitchin has its own character and several historic buildings can be found around the town centre, historic market place, Bancroft, Sun Street and Hermitage Road. Although this part of Hertfordshire is fairly heavily populated there is still plenty of scenery with rolling hills, lots of small villages and single track lanes to be found.

Get in

By Car

  • A1 Stevenage -> 3 miles to Hitchin on A602
  • M1 Luton -> 10 miles to Hitchin on A505

By Train

Frequent, generally fast, trains run to and from London, Stevenage, Cambridge and Peterborough.

By Plane

The nearest main airport is Luton Airport about 15 minutes drive from Hitchin. Heathrow Airport is a 1 hour drive otherwise about 1.5 hours by train via London and the Heathrow Express. Coach 777 (Birmingham - Luton - Stansted airports) stops at Hitchin.

Get around

See

  • Historic market square
  • Bancroft
  • Hermitage Road
  • Sun Street

Also in the area is Knebworth (historic house and grounds) and Whipsnade zoo

Do

Buy

  • B&Q Do it yourself (DIY) centre, Nightingale Road
  • Clement Joscelyne expensive furniture and china,
  • Colanders nice and expensive kitchenware,
  • Early Learning Center toys, Bancroft
  • Hawkins of Hitchin cloth for everybody and a toys for kids
  • Millets outdoor activities, Market Place
  • Oxfam nice charity shop in front of St. Mary's church
  • Picture framer the obvious thing, Sun street
  • Sainsburys groceries, Bancroft
  • Waitrose groceries,
  • Wilkinsons large, extremely cheap hardware store, Bancroft
  • Machine Head Music large range of gutars etc, Bucklersbury
  • Open market Churchgate. General stalls Tues & Sat, bric-a-brac Friday

Eat

There is a good selection of mid-range places to eat in Hitchin including pubs, cafes and the usual range of cuisines such as Italian, Indian, Chinese and Thai. Anyone looking for Japanese food should look further south to St Albans:

  • Just 42 English restaurant Sun Street, £20-30 person
  • Mirage 56 Bancroft, mediterranean food, spanish, italian ... mix of everything, £20-30 person, the wine can be occasionally a little bit too warm, but the friendly staff will bring some ice to chill it, unfortunately they wanted to put the ice in the wine.
  • Bar Meze 35 Bucklersbury, Greek restaurant, £15-20 person
  • Mandarin Gourmet 26 Sun Street, chinese restaurant
  • Regent Cottage 11C High Street, chinese restaurant on the first floor, one of the best in the area
  • Pizza Express 12 Market place, £10-15 person, beside the fact that this restaurant belongs to chain it is well managed and serves good food round the clock.
  • Zizzi Sun street, very good pizzeria with a large wood fired pizza oven, £10-20 person
  • No12 Bridge street, very nice english restaurant with friendly staff, a selection of very nice wines, and novel english cuisine, £30+ person for a 3 course menu. Among the best restaurants in town.
  • Sirichai Bancroft, nice Thai restaurant £25+ person for a 3 course menu. Thai wine is OK.

Drink

  • Aussie bar Bom Bora 107a/b Bancroft, large drinks
  • IVORY Brand street, newly opened bar
  • CORN EXCHANGE market square; barn-like.
  • HALF MOON Pleasant, real-ale oriented free house at end of Queen Street. Food, opens late.
  • COOPERS ARMS Tilehouse Street, near library. McMullen's pub, interesting old building, nice outdoor yard at rear.
  • SUNRUNNER Bancroft. Rambling free house, large choice of ales incl. local brews

Sleep

There are a number of acceptable small hotels and bed & breakfast type places to stay in and around Hitchin.

Get out

  • Cambridge, 30 miles from Hitchin is one of England's most famous academic cities. Approx 2 trains/hour.
  • London is 32 miles south of Hitchin and can be reached via the motorway A1 or by train. Approx 4 trains/hour, 30-40 mins journey.
  • Luton is ten miles west of Hitchin and is an airtravel hub. Buses to town centre from Brand Street.
  • Stevenage is 3 miles south of Hitchin, 5 mins by train.
  • Bedford about 15 miles north. Direct bus M1 from Bancroft, 55 mins.