LONDON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
LONDON WEDDINGS
London wedding venues. After Sussex, the location where I have shot most of my weddings over the last twenty years. As you would expect for a big Capital city – there is a very broad range of ceremony and reception options, just within central London. From big cathedrals to intimate chapels. Historic locations to 21st-century skyscrapers. Working town halls and old town halls converted into hotels. Victorian pubs to smart private members clubs. Bomb ruined chapels to famous sporting arenas. You are pretty spoilt for choice. There are venues for any size or style of wedding day you may want.
The photography can be different too – more intimate than some big country venues. With ceremonies and drink receptions often in small rooms, they lend themselves to close up, natural wedding photography. Portraits can be a bit limited in comparison perhaps – maybe a side street, a rooftop or beside a canal? The lighting at many venues can be challenging too – a dark pub in winter, for example. But if the reportage style is embraced, this creates images with atmosphere – like a first dance, in a cleared space in a pub. I’ve found London weddings to be more relaxed than some ‘straightforward’ country weddings. London clerics, with a few exceptions and registrars, tend to be more relaxed about photography than their compatriots outside London.
Plus with London weddings, a common feature – given the logistics of a big city, is getting wedding guests around by London bus. It could just a trip from ceremony to reception, or combined with a tour of famous city landmarks, for those ‘out-of-town’ wedding guests. You can see images of this here.
Here are a few London wedding venues that I’ve shot at before…
Some unique London wedding venues
Islington Town Hall
Yes, it’s a bit of a wedding factory, it’s busy. I’ve seen three brides all converge around the front steps at the same time – going in and coming out. But it is one of the most efficient and friendly venues – and I don’t just mean towards wedding photographers and photography – that I’ve shot at. From wedding ceremonies in the main council chamber, to very small and intimate ceremonies in the mayor’s parlour. One of London’s best wedding venues – because the staff there make it so. Frankly, many registrars can be ‘prickly’ characters with their rules and restrictions. The signing of the register for example. Many will only allow some old-fashioned, posed up picture, but not at Islington. I was once asked by a registrar there if that is what I wanted to shoot when I said absolutely not, they replied: “Good, so much better when it is natural and pictures of the actual signing.” Just be ready to encounter another wedding party coming in as you leave – it’s a friendly chaos.
The Gherkin
In the heart of the City of London – the Financial District – 30 St Mary Axe, to give it it’s correct name. The ‘Gherkin’ sobriquet, comes from the skyscraper’s unique shape. A London wedding venue with a view and the possibility of a stunning sunset vista, as your guests dine. Although as more skyscrapers appear around it, some of the view is likely to change. Still an impressive looking venue, inside and out. Even without the sunshine, it must be an impressive place for a wedding meal in the middle of a thunderstorm! A London wedding venue that is also a London landmark.
St Bart’s Church
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, near Smithfields in central London. One of the oldest and most striking churches in the capital city. It’s dark and it’s atmospheric. One reason you see it feature in many films and TV shows. An early twelfth-century church, the Romanesque architecture is pretty unique in London. It survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Great Fire of London and the Blitz. You’ll see it in films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Avengers: Age of Ultron and even Transformers: The Last Knight. A very characterful venue for a wedding ceremony.
Town Hall Hotel
The Town Hall Hotel, formally the council offices of Bethnal Green in East London. Opened in 1910, Edwardian architecture, with an Art Deco interior, have made this wedding venue another favourite film location. A ceremony in the main council chamber, lavishly built from Australian walnut wood. A wedding in the round and nice light to boot! Now a boutique hotel, there are nice modern touches all around. A nice contained space for a London wedding. No exterior space, save the steps at the front – but on a rainy day, it works nicely. You would not know that busy London was just outside.
Lansdowne Club
Mayfair, London. A private members’ club near Berkeley Square. Hard to find a more elegant-looking wedding venue in London. The large ballroom and the courtyard – there is plenty of space for both ceremonies and the reception.
RSA
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. A hidden gem, just off The Strand. The Georgian townhouse facade belies the Tardis-like feel inside. A blend of the old and new. A ceremony in the Great Room, or wedding meal, a vast room lit by a glass ceiling dome. Or the Benjamin Franklin room, looking out to the busy London streets nearby. Trafalgar Square is just around the corner – perfect for an evening stroll by wedding guests. As for the partying -– head down to the Vaults below. A contained space to let your hair down in.
Old Marylebone Town Hall
Situated on the busy Marylebone Road, which becomes the A40 just nearby and then takes the traffic off to Oxford, it’s an iconic London wedding venue. The steps outside, with the stone lions, where many famous people have emerged from the Town Hall after their wedding ceremony – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Liam Gallagher and Melanie Griffith, among others. I shot one of my first weddings here, in the large ceremony room, The Westminster Room. When I went in, the curtains were closed. I asked why? They replied that wedding photographers liked that as they preferred to use flash! I asked for them to be opened…
Chelsea Town Hall
Another iconic Registry office in London. On the King’s Road, Chelsea is another favourite for celebs to get married in. Mostly smaller rooms, for smaller type weddings but with lots of restaurants nearby to walk to for the reception and dinner.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
A five-star luxury hotel in Knightsbridge, overlooking Hyde Park. Opened in 1908 it was called then the Hyde Park Hotel. It has a small garden just opposite Hyde Park for a drinks reception outside, as well as the large ballrooms inside for ceremonies and dinner.
The Orangery
Located in Holland Park, West London, this stone and glass building is flooded with light. The large wall of mirrors does make some angles a bit tricky for photographers during the wedding ceremony though. But a nice outdoor space, around the fountain, for the drinks reception.
The Amadeus Centre
A former Welsh Presbyterian chapel situated in Maida Vale, North West London. Now a blank canvas in which to create your wedding day spread over the two halls. Ceremony and dinner in the Upper Hall, with a cozy drinks reception downstairs in the Lower Hall?
In and Out Club
The In and Out (Naval and Military Club) – a private members’ club in St James’s Square, near Pall Mall. Established in 1862 as a club for officers of the Navy and Army, it now accepts non-military members but retains a very military tradition and atmosphere. The ‘In and Out’ is a nickname that came from the carriage gates of the original clubhouse on Piccadilly, not far away.
RIBA
Royal Institute of British Architects, in Marylebone, London – just a short walk from Oxford Circus. A wedding venue with space and light – one of the best wedding venues in London in my opinion. A big, well lit (by natural light – which is important) ceremony room. A vast reception room for dining and dancing. A large exterior area for drinks, almost a ‘Manhattan’ feel with the surrounding buildings. A grand staircase for a confetti run too. Highly recommended!
Christ Church, Spitalfields
A wedding reception in a grand Nicholas Hawksmoor church. What is not to like? Apart from no chance of bouncing any flash off the ceiling. Dating from the early eighteenth century, the spire once dominated the surrounding area – some of which was some of the most deprived in the country. The site of one of Jack the Ripper’s murders is just across the road – now partially buried by a car park. But a big space, with elegant columns and a high ceiling – a canvas to fill and light. Hard to believe it was virtually derelict in the 1960s. A Georgian masterpiece – a unique venue for a London wedding reception.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
A wedding ceremony in an art gallery? The World’s first purpose-built art gallery, in South-East London. Get married in the Soane Galery there, surrounded by the Old Masters – paintings by Rembrandt, Canaletto, or Rubens. Ceremonies have to be during the evening or during to day on Mondays, when the gallery is closed to the public.
Inner Temple
One of the four Inns of Court and a professional association for judges and barristers. The history of the Inner Temple predates them though and harks back to the Knights Templars who first set up in this area between Fleet Street and the river Thames. The Temple church still stands nearby.
Burgh House
Historic Queen Anne house in Hampstead, North London. This old building now houses the Hampstead Museum, a wedding venue for very cozy small weddings.
Hackney Town Hall
Another London Town Hall, this time in the East End of London. This grade II listed building, still a working Town Hall, has a touch of vintage glamour about it. Art Deco style, like many London town halls from the early twentieth century. You can get lucky with some very nice light in the main council chamber.
The Asylum Chapel
If there is a London wedding venue that is famous amongst wedding photographers and on the ‘to-do’ list, it has to be The Asylum Chapel in South-East London. A grade II listed early nineteenth chapel that is now an event space in Peckham. Now it’s just for ceremonies, rather than receptions but what a unique space for a wedding ceremony! A chapel that was bombed in WWII and it is that scarring that gives it so much of it’s character now. It works as a space, even on a cold, wet November, as below.
AMP Studios
Linked to The Asylum Chapel and a short walk away from it, is a unique wedding reception space in two railway arches, just on New Cross Road (the A2). Not a big space but it’s different and in keeping with the vibe at The Asylum Chapel – shabby character. For some reason, every time I’ve shot here it has rained.
Bull and Last pub
The Bull and Last pub in Highgate, North London. A “300-year-old inn nestling on a busy bus lane on the east side of Hampstead Heath”. Not a massive space, pubs usually aren’t but has a room for the meal upstairs. A very atmospheric wedding venue.
The Peasant Pub
Another very atmospheric pub, like the Bull and Last, but this one is in Clerkenwell. A Victorian horseshoe bar, with a restaurant upstairs.
St Paul’s Cathedral
A wedding at one of the UK’s best-known landmarks, St Paul’s Cathedral. The ceremony is actually downstairs, in the OBE chapel next to the tombs of Nelson and Wellington. You enter and exit from the side of the cathedral. It’s a notable place to get married but not for wedding photography. Photography is very restricted. The last time I was there, there was a complete ban on images of the ceremony. Previously there was begrudging permission to photograph through the tiny, dusty bits of glass in the closed chapel doors. (See picture bottom left below). It’s sad and rather comical, having to photograph a wedding by pressing your camera up against a door. Completely out of step with what happens elsewhere, maybe they will get modern one day? But if images of your wedding ceremony aren’t important, then there are images around that moment in the day. One such won me the Professional Photographer of the Year award.
Lord’s Cricket Ground
If you are looking for truly unique, for your London wedding venue – how about the home of world cricket? Lord’s Cricket ground. Getting ready in the England team dressing room (very spartan). A wedding ceremony in the Long Room. Confetti on the steps out to the pitch. Leisurely drinks on the top tier of the Pavilion, with a great view of the ground. Then eventually back down to dinner and speeches, back in the Long Room. If you like cricket?
