Hatfield is 25 minutes from London King's Cross on a direct train, twice an hour, and contactless works: £8.40 off-peak each way, or £16.70 for a paper Off-Peak Day Return. The station is on the same road as the estate entrance. But read this before you book: the house itself was closed for the season when we checked at the end of September 2026, and the gardens closed for the season on Sunday 27 September. Only the Park and Woodland Walks were still open, Wednesday to Sunday.
Hatfield House is the Jacobean house that Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury and Elizabeth I's chief minister's son, built in 1611, and it has been the Salisbury family's home ever since. Across the garden from it stands one surviving brick wing of the much older Royal Palace of Hatfield, where Elizabeth spent most of her childhood.
Because it is a working estate with a season rather than a museum with opening hours, when you come matters more here than at almost any other great house near London. Our ranking of the cheapest day trips from London puts the fare in context. This page is about the season, the two tickets and the journey.
Hatfield at a glance
- From
- London King's Cross, direct, about twice an hour
- Journey time
- 25 minutes (National Rail); the estate says "just 20 minutes by rail"
- Contactless
- Valid. £8.40 off-peak, £11.00 peak each way. Contactless only: Oyster is not accepted
- Off-Peak Day Return
- £16.70 (National Rail, September 2026)
- Station
- 79 Great North Road, AL9 5AB; step-free to all platforms, with lifts
- House, Garden and Park
- Adult £27, child 3-15 £13.50, family £72 (2 adults, 4 children)
- Garden, Park and Woodland Walks
- Adult £17, child 3-15 £8.50, family £42
- Old Palace tour
- £8.50 per person, tour only, booked at the Stable Yard kiosk
- Stable Yard
- Free entrance, free parking, open all year
- Season
- House closed for the season in late September 2026; gardens closed from 27 September. 2027 dates not published
The season, and the thing to check first
Hatfield Park's own opening page said three things when we read it at the end of September 2026. "Hatfield House is now closed for the season." The Gardens open Wednesday to Sunday and on bank holidays from 10:30 to 17:00, last entry 16:00, with the East Garden open on Wednesdays only, but "the Gardens will be closed for the season from Sunday 27th September". And the Park and Woodland Walks open Wednesday to Sunday and on bank holidays, 10:30 to 17:00, last entry 16:00.
The season-ticket terms give the broad shape of the year: they are valid on the respective Park and Garden open dates "between February Half Term and November Half Term". No 2027 dates for the house or the gardens had been published when we checked.
So Hatfield is not a place to turn up at on a whim in October, and it is emphatically not a winter day out. It is, when the season is on, one of the easiest great houses in England to reach from London without a car. Both of those things are true, and the second is no use to you in November.
Check the Hatfield Park opening page for your exact date, and do it before you buy a train ticket. The house, the gardens, the park, the Old Palace, the Stable Yard shops and the restaurant all keep different hours and different seasons, and the site closes parts of itself at short notice for filming, weddings and large events. The estate reserves that right in writing. A phone call is quicker than a wasted £16.70.
Photo: Acabashi · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
What contactless does on this line
Hatfield sits outside the London fare zones but inside the contactless pay as you go area, and TfL's fare data flags the King's Cross journey as a contactless-only fare: £8.40 off-peak and £11.00 at peak. An Oyster card will not work at the barriers.
The arithmetic is unusually close. Two off-peak taps come to £16.80, and the paper Off-Peak Day Return is £16.70, so the ticket office wins by ten pence and the card saves you the queue. Travel out in the morning peak, though, and the flexible paper return at £16.70 beats two contactless singles at £11.00 each by a wide margin.
Our page on Oyster against contactless explains why the two behave differently beyond the zone boundary, and our guide to buying British train tickets covers when a return beats two singles. Trains go from the main King's Cross concourse: see our King's Cross and St Pancras station guide.
Station to gate
Hatfield station is at 79 Great North Road and the estate entrance is on the same road, a few minutes away on the flat. The estate publishes no walking time of its own, only the claim that it is twenty minutes by rail from King's Cross; our own estimate is five minutes from the platform to the gate, which makes this the shortest walk to any comparable house near London.
The station is rated step-free category A by National Rail, with step-free access to all platforms, lifts, toilets, accessible toilets and a Changing Places facility. Note one current limitation on the estate itself: Hatfield Park says there is no buggy service at present, so the distances inside the park have to be walked.
Parking is free for cars and coaches, with AL9 5HX as the sat-nav postcode, and entrance to the Stable Yard and its parking costs nothing at all.
The two tickets
| Ticket | Adult | Child 3-15 | Family, 2 adults and 4 children | Group of 20 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden, Park and Woodland Walks | £17.00 | £8.50 | £42.00 | £15.00 per person |
| Hatfield House, Garden and Park | £27.00 | £13.50 | £72.00 | £23.00 per person |
| The Old Palace tour | £8.50 | £8.50 | Not offered | - |
Under-3s go free on both main tickets. Students get 25% off on production of a valid student or NUS card, and carers are admitted free on arrival with a valid carer's card. A Half Season Ticket is £43 for an adult and £17 for a child; season tickets do not include the house itself, though holders can buy a discounted supplement. The ticket kiosks are cashless.
The £10 difference between the two tickets is the house, and when the house is open it is worth paying. When it is not, £17 for a garden and a park is a price to think about, and in October and November the £17 garden ticket has nothing to sell you either.
Elizabeth, the Old Palace and what the estate actually claims
Henry VIII took the palace at Hatfield from the Bishop of Ely in 1538 and used it as a nursery for his three children. Hatfield's own account is that Elizabeth is the one most closely associated with it, that she had a happy childhood here sharing in her brother Edward's education, and that after Mary came to the throne in 1553 "effectively Elizabeth was kept under house arrest at Hatfield".
The story everyone repeats next, that she was sitting under an oak in the park when the news came in November 1558 that she was queen, is a tradition rather than a documented event, and the estate's own pages do not assert it. We are not going to either. What is certainly true is that Hatfield is where she was living when the messengers arrived, and that the first council of her reign met here.
The Bishops of Ely also held a piece of Holborn that was treated as Cambridgeshire for centuries; we tell that London half of the same story on our page about Ely Place and St Etheldreda's Church.
The Old Palace itself operates on a tour-only basis and is not open for free-flow visits. Tickets are £8.50 per person, bought at the Stable Yard ticket kiosk, and the building is regularly let for weddings, banquets and corporate parties, so the estate warns that it is "not always possible to view the inside". Tours often run on the days when it is not in use, which is a useful way of saying that you cannot plan around them.
The East Garden opens one day a week. When the gardens are in season, the West Garden, the Old Palace Garden and the Woodland Garden open Wednesday to Sunday, but the East Garden opens on Wednesdays only. If the formal gardens are your reason for coming, that single fact decides your day of the week.
The park, the woodland walks and the free bit
The Park and Woodland Walks are the part of Hatfield that keeps the longest season, opening Wednesday to Sunday and on bank holidays from 10:30 to 17:00. They are also the part that a wet autumn suits: old parkland, a deer park, woodland rides and long views back to the house.
Two rules apply. Dogs are not allowed in the Gardens, with the exception of assistance dogs, but they are allowed in the Park. Picnics are also banned in the Gardens, which is the opposite of what most visitors assume, so eat in the park or in the Stable Yard.
The Stable Yard is the genuinely free element: an entrance charge of nothing, free parking, and a mix of independent shops and food businesses open through the year with their own hours. The Coach House Kitchen restaurant there opens Tuesday to Sunday, with the café 9:00 to 17:00 and the restaurant 9:00 to 16:30 Tuesday to Friday and 9:00 to 17:00 at weekends. If the house and gardens are shut, the Stable Yard and a walk in the park still make a cheap half day out of a £16.70 train ticket.
Is Hatfield worth the journey, and when
In season, yes, and for one specific reason: no other house of this scale is 25 minutes from central London with a five-minute walk at the far end. That combination beats the Kent houses, which mostly need a taxi, and it beats the Thames-side palaces on journey time.
Out of season it is a park with a very good train service, and there are better parks closer. If your dates fall in the closed months, the Tudor comparison to make instead is Hampton Court Palace, which is open all year, or Hever Castle for the Boleyn end of the same story. For a house you can walk to from a station in Kent, see Knole and Sevenoaks.
Hertfordshire itself has two other day trips on the same network. St Albans is the better all-weather choice, with a cathedral and a Roman town, and Bletchley Park is further up the line and open year-round. Hatfield station's step-free rating is useful if that matters to you; see our guide to step-free transport in London. The full list is under day trips from London.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hatfield House open all year?
No. It runs a season. When we checked at the end of September 2026 the house was already "closed for the season", and the gardens closed for the season on Sunday 27 September. Only the Park and Woodland Walks remained open, Wednesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 17:00. No 2027 season dates had been published.
How long is the train from London to Hatfield?
Twenty-five minutes direct from King's Cross, about twice an hour, according to National Rail. The estate's own website says "just 20 minutes by rail". The station is on the Great North Road, a few minutes on foot from the estate entrance.
How much does Hatfield House cost?
An adult pays £27.00 for the house, garden and park, or £17.00 for the garden, park and woodland walks without the house (September 2026). Children aged 3 to 15 pay £13.50 or £8.50, under-3s are free, and a family of two adults and four children pays £72.00 or £42.00. The Old Palace tour is £8.50 extra.
Can I use contactless to Hatfield?
Yes, contactless only, not Oyster. TfL's fare data gives £8.40 off-peak and £11.00 peak for a single from King's Cross. Two off-peak taps come to £16.80 against £16.70 for a paper Off-Peak Day Return, so the difference off-peak is ten pence; at peak the paper return is much cheaper.
Is the Old Palace at Hatfield open to visitors?
Only on a guided tour, at £8.50 per person, booked at the Stable Yard ticket kiosk. It is hired out for weddings and private events through the year, and the estate says it is not always possible to see inside. Do not plan a visit around it.
Sources
- Hatfield Park - Opening times and prices (checked September 2026)
- Hatfield Park - The Old Palace: tours, price and history (checked September 2026)
- Hatfield Park - Your visit, parking and Stable Yard (checked September 2026)
- National Rail Enquiries - London King's Cross to Hatfield, times and fares (checked September 2026)
- National Rail Enquiries - Hatfield (Herts) station, address and step-free access (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Single Fare Finder data, King's Cross to Hatfield (checked September 2026)