page_title: The Grove, Watford
section_title: Since 1900
hierarchical_section_title: The Grove, Watford / History / Since 1900
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump participates in a working lunch with the 2%ers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), during the NATO 70th anniversary meeting Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019, in Watford, Hertfordshire outside London. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
context_page_description: The Grove is a large hotel in Hertfordshire, England, with a 300–acre private park next to the River Gade and the Grand Union Canal. It touches on its north-west corner the M25 motorway and remains a small part in Watford. The estate is situated within three different settlements; most of the land and all of the mansion itself are in the civil parish of Sarratt, and also in the ecclesiastical parish of Langleybury, while the estate lies within the post town of Rickmansworth.
  Originally built as an English country house on the site of a medieval manor house, The Grove served as the family seat of the Earls of Clarendon, the Villiers family, from 1776–c.1920. Since its Georgian construction, The Grove has been altered and extended four times by a number of noted architects, including Surveyor of the King's Works, Robert Taylor.
  Following the increase in estate duty in 1914, the Villiers Family sold off the house and estate. Today it is in use as a luxury hotel and golf course. The Grove often hosts major international events, such as the WGC-American Express Championship in 2006, the 2009 G20 London summit, the 2013 Bilderberg Conference and the 2019 NATO Leaders' Meeting.
context_section_description: In the early 20th century, death duties, a form of taxation introduced in 1894 by the Liberal Government, was placing an increasing financial burden on landed gentry and was responsible for the breaking up of many large estates across Britain. In the 1920s, in order to reduce their tax liabilities, the Villiers family decided to sell The Grove, downsizing their holdings to their estate at Swanmore, Hampshire. Also at around this time, nearby Cassiobury House was sold off by the widow of George Capell, 7th Earl of Essex in 1922 due to prohibitive death duties.
  After the sale, The Grove was then used as a gardening school, a health centre (National Institute of Nutrition and College of Dietetics), a riding school, and a girls' boarding school. It was the wartime headquarters of one of the Big Four consolidated railway companies.  It became a management training centre for the British Transport Commission and later British Rail.
  In 1996, the estate was acquired by Ralph Trustees Ltd, at which time the mansion was extended and converted into an hotel. Jeremy Blake, an architect with listed buildings and sustainability expertise, was appointed to undertake these works. The Grove is a former AA Hotel of the Year and was voted the UK's Favourite Leisure Hotel by Condé Nast Traveler readers in 2008.
  The formal gardens were designed by the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medallist and judge, Michael Balston. Other features include an 18-hole championship golf course designed by the Californian Kyle Phillips. The golf course is laid out to the south and east of the house (which is on a low hill above the valley of the river Gade) with its eastern border reaching to the western bank of the Grand Union Canal (that incoroprates the Gade in this part of the valley) and its southern border adjacent to the golf course of the West Hert Golf Club.
  In 2006, it was the venue of the WGC-American Express Championship golf tournament. It was the venue for the April 2009 G20 London summit.
  The 2013 Bilderberg Conference took place in the hotel and in 2016 it hosted the British Masters golf tournament. It also hosted the 2019 NATO Leaders' Meeting, chaired by the NATO Secretary General, on 4 December 2019.
caption: US President Donald Trump at a lunch during the 2019 NATO summit in the Mansion Room at The Grove
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