With news that Selfridges has just gained a wedding license, so you can now get married in a temple to mammon, what other interesting places in London allow marriages?
There are probably several thousand places to get hitched in London, but some can stand out a bit, and while more expensive than a local hall, some are surprisingly affordable for modest-sized weddings.
All bar one of the venues below can handle civil partnerships, gay and straight weddings.
Old Royal Naval College
London’s second-largest greenhouse is in the Barbican, and can be hired for a wedding venue that’s both brutal and surrounded by plants and ponds.
A grand building with several impressive rooms for receptions and vows, it’s also conveniently central.
A grand old Georgian building overlooking a huge private lawn in the heart of the city.
No sniggering about the name for a wedding venue, but they will offer the Conservatory, Pavilion and Bandstand with some great views of south London.
You can get married inside the great greenhouses which do have the benefit of being a warm and dry venue for the event.
London Museum of Water and Steam
Get hot and steamy. A grand old Victorian building with loads of steam engines, and even a small railway.
Two indoor venues within the zoo for the main event, with receptions possible next to the penguins or the tigers.
Both of the Museum of London’s venues can be hired, from the old warehouse building in Docklands, to the main galleries in the City.
From modest rooms to the huge main hall, it’s an impressive space for a wedding and reception.
With prices starting at £12,000 it’s not a cheap venue, but they do have a lot of rooms to choose from for a posh wedding.
The venue for a brutal wedding, the outdoor terrace and bar at the National Gallery on the Southbank.
The stunning painted hall can be used for weddings and receptions, along with the undercroft. The hall itself is not licensed for weddings, but the Chapel next door is.
Yes, you can get married in the Palace of Westminster. Not in the debating chambers, alas, but the grand dining rooms and terraces are impressive on their own. Having to go through a metal detector to attend a wedding will be fairly unique as well.
Not an obvious choice, but there’s a huge domed reading room in the building which is hired out for events and weddings.
A small island in the Thames near Surbiton, arrive by boat for a very private venue.
A tall tower in the middle of a wood with views across London makes for a unique venue. And possibly the only wedding where it will be sensible to arrive in a pair of trainers to walk through the wood.
A series of grand rooms in the main hall, but also fairly unique in having a functioning church next door for the wedding with private entrance into their garden for receptions.
They have three venues that can be used, singly or in combination, from the North tower, the engine room or the walkways.
A quirk of the bridge is that it sits across the boundary between Tower Hamlets and Southwark, and only the northern half is licensed for weddings.
It is possible to get married in St Paul’s Cathedral, albeit with some rather unique restrictions. The wedding takes place in the crypt chapel, is only open to members of the Order of St Michael and St George, the Order of the British Empire, holders of the British Empire Medal, members of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor and their children.
And it needs written permission from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
And no gays.
What could be more romantic than being married in an old electricity generating plant with a dead cow in formaldehyde hanging over you?
A load of rooms for receptions along with the central courtyard. Several rooms licensed for weddings.
Westminster Abbey
Only members of Royalty or people who work in the Abbey can get married here. So very exclusive. Maybe you can get a temporary summer job and qualify?
My great grandparents were married in Selfridges in 1900.
(or rather in St Thomas’s church on Orchard Street, which used to be on the same site)
Thumbs down for St Paul’s. Get with the programme, cathedral.