Buffet and Ghost Hunt at The Olde Kings Arms, Hemel - April 10th 2026

Standing on Hemel Hempstead's Old High Street, The Olde Kings Arms is a surviving reminder of the town's Tudor and post-tudor past. Believed to date back to the 16th Century, the building began life as a coaching inn, serving travellers, merchants and officials moving through Hertfordshire at a time when such inns were essential to daily life.

With it's timber-framed construction, low ceilings and irregular floors, the inn reflects centuries of continuous use. Coaching inns were places of rest, business, secrecy and celebration - enviroments dense with human presence and emotion. Over time, buildings like this became reposotories of local memory, both recorded and unrecorded.

Local tradition holds that King Henry VIII visited the Olde Kings Arms during his travels through the region. While definitive documentation is scarce - as is often the case in Tudor-era inns - the story has been passed down through generations. Royal visits to coaching inns were not unusual, particularly when progress routes changed or official lodgings were unavailable. This association has become part of the inn's long-staning floklore, adding another layer of it's Tudor identity.

Among the most enduring stories connected to the building is that of the "Fat, jolly-looking man" reportedly seen stood at the end  of a bed in one of the upper rooms. Wheter the figure is linked  to the inn's Tudor past, a former guest or simply a manifestation of the buildings history remains unknown.

This is a late starting night for us. Arrival time is 10 PM! We will be serving a buffet supper and then from 11 PM we will explore the rooms upstairs. At 12.30 the bar will be cleared and we then have complete access to the whole pub. Cake and coffee/tea will be served at 12.30  and we will continue to investigate until 2 AM.

If you would like to make a full night of it then the rooms are available at a 10% discount for all those attending the event. Keep your booking email to show when paying for the room.