Markyate · food
Markyate is a linear A5 village: a short list of local places, and Hemel, Harpenden or Luton when you want a scene.
The Sun Inn and village takeaways do the honest work. Pretending otherwise is how guidebooks annoy people who live here.
Our listings will send you to Hemel or Harpenden where Markyate has no equivalent: and we will say so.
Sandwiches first, scones second, room third. Instagram is not a criterion.
Markyate is small enough that an honest “best afternoon teas” list should admit gaps. These are the nearest Dacorum options we would actually send you to.
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01
97 High Street, Berkhamsted · Berkhamsted
The Gatsby occupies a 1930s cinema and has been Berkhamsted’s special-occasion dining room since 2005: à la carte, Sunday roast, cocktails and a piano. It is theatrical without being a tourist trap, and it still books out for birthdays. Come for the room as much as the plate.
02
196 High Street, Berkhamsted · Berkhamsted
Copper House is the High Street’s polished independent: cocktails, weekend afternoon tea, Sunday roast and a dining room that works for a Friday night without requiring a christening. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, which is a useful filter for people who live here rather than pass through.
03
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.
04
Cow Lane, Tring · Tring
Pendley is Tring’s manor-house venue: weddings, a Shakespeare festival tradition, and a hotel stay that feels further from the A41 than it is. If you are planning a Dacorum wedding and want grounds, start here and at Ashridge.
05
Ashridge, Little Gaddesden · Berkhamsted
The house is a separate operation from the National Trust landscape, which confuses visitors. You can walk the woods without entering the house; you cannot wander the state rooms because you parked for a walk. Weddings here are the full Chiltern fantasy.
More from the directory: Markyate Fish Bar & Kebab HouseMarkyate Grill at Fusion FoodsMarkyate Cricket & Football Club
Planning
Supplementary Planning Documents for the HGC area are now adopted. They will guide neighbourhoods, infrastructure and the long argument about how Hemel grows north.
25 June 2026