“You don’t realise how lucky you are to live in Hitchin, until you’ve gone somewhere else and you know it’s not Hitchin.”
Hitchin is by no means the biggest town in Hertfordshire, but it definitely punches well above its weight. It’s a charming market town with a population of only 35,000, in North Herts but it’s building its reputation throughout the country and is attempting to become the UK’s 2028 Town of Culture.
So, we sat down with Hitchin’s Town Centre Manager, Danny Pearson, to get his take on how he and his team at Visit Hitchin are working with the whole community to develop Hitchin’s profile nationally and internationally.
Danny Pearson (r), with James Latham, Great Food Club Herts Editor
Danny is born and bred in Hitchin “I’m one of the last babies to be born in Hitchin before the maternity ward got moved to Stevenage.” and he loves it: “We have a very characteristic town. It looks like that picture postcard when you think of Great Britain”
But he’s only been with Visit Hitchin since 2023, and the Town Centre Manager since September 2025, so this is very much early days. But as the Business Improvement District (BID), as Visit Hitchin is more formally known, has to vote on its continuation again in 2-3 years, Danny and his small team are running at full speed to deliver as much value as they can on behalf of the local businesses and the community as a whole. “if we get in again, happy days, we’re back for another five years, but it won’t be one or two individual achievements, it’ll be the totality of all of those days working for all the town centre businesses.”
Before Danny got involved in Visit Hitchin, he had a fascinating and varied career. With a degree in Graphic Art and Design from Leeds university, a creative career was always likely. But despite loving design and the visual world, the idea of sitting at a computer all day didn’t fill him with much enthusiasm. Back in Hitchin he was trying to figure out his future when he had the opportunity of taking a part time job at Hitchin Waterstones to help pay the bills. He was asked to look after the children’s section and run events where “I dressed up as a pirate and led them round the store on a treasure hunt”. Not only was he helping the children to fall in love with reading, but it made him realise there was an opportunity for him in the literary world. From here he started a writing and publishing career that included fulfilling a child’s dream of writing for The Beano! Which he still does to this day. He later went on to become the Publisher of a very highly respected children’s book publisher, worked on 100s of titles and grew the company into an award-winning publishing house.
But there comes a point in many careers when things need to change, and after Covid a job came up, back in Hitchin at the local council, Danny took the opportunity. The role involved engaging with the public at all levels and working with several community groups. He’d got the bug! “It was a massive career change and now I was working with charities, creative groups, schools, colleges… and fully integrated back into the Hitchin community, which I’ve always loved”. And from there it wasn’t long before he had the opportunity to join Visit Hitchin to run the events, and despite there being no mention of pirate outfits: “I gave it lots of thought for all of two seconds!”
Danny Pearson (2nd right) with the Visit Hitchin team
Now as the Town Centre Manager of Visit Hitchin, he runs a small team that represents over 620 businesses in the BID. The move from BID to Visit Hitchin was the right move for the organisation, it needed a rebrand and to help people understand what it is there to do. And although there is a very defined area that constitutes the BID, Danny thinks bigger:
“We are looking at the town as a whole rather than just the town centre. Yes, our bosses are still the 620+ businesses within the area, and they always come first, but to look at just the town centre in isolation and not look at the entire town is impossible and foolish. We should not do that and we aren’t doing that.”
And that’s important, because Hitchin is developing: “750 homes are being built to the north of Hitchin. It’s outside the BID area but those 750 homes will have roughly 1,000 extra people, 1,000 extra cars. So how are they going to get to town to spend their hard-earned money and how are we going to integrate them into the community? So that’s why we’re looking at the town as a whole.”
So, this means engaging with any business outside the BID area, if it means they can help drive interest in Hitchin and make an impact on the centre. Visit Hitchin call this ‘friends of the BID’. An example is the local football club which is outside the BID area, but who are supporting the town centre through initiatives like merchandise sales and offering advertising space around the pitch to encourage home and away fans to ‘Discover Hitchin’ before and after the game!
As a visitor, one of the things that is so impressive about Hitchin, is the number of independent businesses in the town. There’s a vibrancy to it and there’s clearly a real sense of community. When asked about this, Danny reflected on when he returned from university in the late 2000s the town was starting to struggle with the impact of the global economic crisis. But it was clear then that the community weren’t going to lie down and accept it, nor was Hitchin BID. The town started to fight back. “I saw the town step up. Certain areas of town were a bit ‘dodgy’. They’re no longer dodgy. The parks could have been safer, and they now are. Something changed in 2008 where we didn’t slip into the abyss, we rose above it.” And as some towns are struggling now but Danny is defiant “We’re not. We’re not going to bow down, roll over and give up. There is so much going on in this town and it remains the jewel in the crown of North Hertfordshire.”
Hitchin’s also a real foodie hotspot, and every time we visit, there seems to be a new place to try. The centre is constantly evolving, but that doesn’t mean businesses closing down, or lots of big national chain eateries coming in. If anything, it’s the opposite: interesting new cuisines, stylish bars, classic pubs, delis and cafes, all sitting side-by-side with traditional butchers, bakeries and greengrocers. It’s in-keeping with its market town traditions, but with modernity and freshness too.
The window of Webb’s of Hitchin
And over recent years, there has been an influx of people moving out of London, to Hitchin. Those people are chasing a different type of lifestyle for their families. They want access to countryside, good education for their children but still want to live somewhere with interesting shops, and high standards of hospitality. It’s a two-way street of course, many of those new people bring innovation and creativity, but they also expect high standards “we have some amazing businesses in the town that work on huge global projects. Also, there are people working for the BBC or Netflix who are writing for the theatres here and scouting locations for future TV and film productions. We are getting everyone ready to expect more creatives joining us as we look forward to the new Universal theme park opening just up the road from us.”
“People from London are expecting the quality they had there. With the events, with businesses, with street cleanliness, the pubs and bars, the overall environment… everything.”.
This is only positive to Danny. This is creating dynamism in the town and improving things across the board. And ultimately, as he says “I live here. I want the town to be the best it can be.” Who could argue with that?
But the challenges facing the high street nationally are of course impacting Hitchin too, and although Visit Hitchin has no political opinion, it’s clear that Danny and the team are concerned for many of the businesses in the town:
“For businesses, it’s difficult to keep up and the businesses that I know are asking ‘why are we getting more challenges? We should be rewarded for us success, not punished. And we’ve reached the level where we can’t strip back anymore.’ It’s just not viable. Pubs and bars for example, they’re getting a rough deal. So, in January and February, in the traditionally dark difficult months, we challenged people to go out to 10 places anywhere in this town centre, get a drink, have a bite to eat, collect your receipt; and in March, bring in 10 receipts to be in with a chance of winning a £100 voucher to spend in the town”.
The Kite at the Red Hart, Hitchin
His attitude is clear and it’s a defiant one. This is about doing whatever his team can to help the town thrive. He understands that times are tough for people, but if they can do their bit to help the town’s businesses, then everyone wins. Whether people are newly arrived, or have been there for generations, there are always new things to try, places to visit or activities to get involved in. “There’s always something going on, whether it be the theatre or an event or a workshop or a class or a talk or an exhibition. You can eat, drink and shop at a different place every day and still not still go everywhere in the year! There are so many different places to explore and that’s what we at Visit Hitchin are trying to encourage.”
But this is by no means just the responsibility of Visit Hitchin, or just the businesses, or just the residents. It’s the whole community that is responsible for a town’s success. So, Danny’s advice to everyone is this:
“There’ so much to explore in this town. Please do go out and discover new places and opportunities. Enjoy it, brag about it. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell everyone you know and just enjoy it. Can you contribute? Can you be a volunteer, a scout leader, coach a football team, help at a youth club or help at the town centre events? Be part of the town because it’s a lot more fun being involved rather than watching from the sidelines. We look forward to welcoming you to Hitchin!”
And if you’re new to Hitchin, or have been here a while – here’s Danny’s take on the perfect Hitchin day:
Danny Pearson’s perfect Hitchin day!
