Hemel Hempstead · food
Hemel Hempstead feeds 96,000 people, which means the honest map is neighbourhood parades plus a handful of destination rooms in the Old Town and Apsley: not a single restaurant row.
Old Town High Street is where independents look like independents. Apsley Lock is where you eat after the towpath. The Marlowes and Jarman Park do the chains. Maylands does the weekday lunch. Judging Hemel as if it were Berkhamsted High Street is how you miss the good breakfasts.
Parking is easier at Apsley and Jarman Park than in the Old Town on a Sunday. Buses serve the Marlowes better than they serve a 9pm kitchen close. Book the few special-occasion rooms; turn up for cafes.
Cake that tastes of butter, ice cream that is not only a freezer brand, rooms that work after school.
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23 High Street, Hemel Hempstead · Hemel Hempstead
No visit to the Old Town is complete without deciding whether you are a Tea Tree person. Vintage room, proper afternoon tea, High Street window. It is unashamedly pretty, which Hemel’s New Town centre is not, and that is the whole appeal.
More from the directory: The Tea TreeNashmills Sandwich Bar & CafeThe Paper MillKassem’s Lounge
Sport
Two away wins, a home defeat, seven points from four. Hemel Hempstead Town are a National League South story this paper will keep, not a Premier League widget.
28 August 2026
Health
The practice has been telling patients for months that the rutted ground behind Gatecroft is Dacorum’s, not an official park. Ward members pledged CIL to rebuild it. The council newsroom has not yet posted a start notice.
28 August 2026