Stylish cocktail bar in St Albans, Hertfordshire

Founded by the Benedictine order, Sopwell Nunnery was a place of refuge where nuns offered food and enlivening elixirs to passing pilgrims en route to the shrine of St Albans.

King Henry VIII dissolved the nunnery, and granted the land to Sir Richard Lee, a military engineer and royal advisor. Lee adapted the monastic ruins to create a fashionable manor house nestled amongst acres of apple orchards.

On 13 December 1538, Richard Lee and his wife Margaret were granted the dissolved Sopwell Priory for £808, 3 shillings and 4 dimes. By the 1550s, Lee began transforming the site into a grand private residence, the beginning of Sopwell House.

The earliest record of the present-day Sopwell House appears in a 1603 deed, referring to it as the newly built ‘New Barnes’, home to Richard Sadlier. The name lived on, and an estate plan in 1660 names it again.

Alice Leigh, daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh, was granted the title of Duchess in 1644 by King Charles I. She later in life sought refuge at Sopwell during the Great Plague and Fire of London.

At the beginning of the 18th Century, Edward Strong, A Master Mason known for working on St Paul's Cathedral, leased and developed Sopwell House further.  He was influential in the natural growth and beauty of the gardens with a healthy crop of herbs for medicinal purposes.

Admiral of the Fleet Prince Louis of Battenberg married Princess Victoria, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and in honour of their union, the famous Battenberg cake was named after him. In 1901, they leased Sopwell House and made it their family home.

Alice of Mountbatten, daughter of the Battenbergs, was devoted to helping others and was known for never using her noble title. In 1913, her work assisting in operations and establishing field hospitals earned her the Royal Red Cross military decoration.

Lord Mountbatten, son of the Battenbergs, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy during WWI. He later served as the last Viceroy of India and the first Governor-General of the Union of India. To date, he remains the longest-serving head of the British Armed Forces.

Alice of Mountbatten married Prince Andrew of Greece, and it is believed the proposal was made within Sopwell House's grounds. Their son Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, inherited the same title of Prince of Greece, taking the Mountbatten name from his mother.

Inspired by our beautiful Cottonmill spa, that launched in the summer of 2019, following a £14m investment project.

Named after the original eight sided entrance to the hotel, the decadent Octagon cocktail bar is another jewel in the crown of Sopwell House.