Arriving by golf buggy at the exterior of Wisteria Cottage, a newly renovated, standalone holiday home on the grounds of The Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire, it's hard not to be impressed. On one side, the twisting wisteria that gives the cottage its name climbs up a more traditional facade; on the other, a modern but sympathetic glass extension cuts a majestic figure.
I'm staying for just a night — one of, if not the, first people to stay at the cottage since it was re-imagined by Martin Hulbert Design — with some friends in tow to make the most of the property's three-bedroom, three-bathroom floorplan. I used to live just around the corner from the Watford-adjacent hotel, perhaps best known to the locals as the design hotel where professional athletes and celebrities go to stay when they don't want to be so in London, as well as for its luxuriant buffet that, in the age of TikTok virality, is far from the hotel's best-kept secret.
