Hannah and Tom’s wedding at Fitzrovia Chapel and the South Bank, London, July 2025
Hannah and Tom are introverts - the kind of couple who feel things deeply and quietly, who don't need the room to notice them, and who when given space simply to be themselves, produce some of the most genuinely beautiful moments to photograph. A hot July day in London, a day that moved between some of the most striking contrasts the city can offer - the hushed, jewel-box perfection of Fitzrovia Chapel, the wide open heat of Regent Street, the breezy South Bank terrace in summer sunshine - and two people at the heart of it all who carried every moment with a natural, unforced grace.
Preparations began at the Native Bankside Hotel, before the wedding party made its way across the city to Fitzrovia. Hannah's veil - a piece by the celebrated Jane Bourvis - was one of those details that photographs itself. Exquisite barely covers it.
Then came the ceremony.
I've photographed weddings in a lot of beautiful spaces. The Fitzrovia Chapel's vaulted golden ceiling, gorgeous stained-glass windows and intricate marble and mosaics make it genuinely unlike anywhere else I've worked - its architect, John Loughborough Pearson, reportedly asked of each of his designs "Does it send you to your knees?" It does. The ceiling mosaic depicts blue stars against a gold background representing the firmament, and in the warmth of a July afternoon, with light filtering through the stained glass, the effect is nothing short of extraordinary. Intimate in scale, overwhelming in detail - it is, without question, the most finely decorated wedding venue I have ever worked.
After the ceremony, the wedding party boarded a London double-decker bus - complete with Hannah and Tom's names on the destination signage - to make the journey south to the Swan London on the South Bank. Now, I had a plan. The route would take us along Regent Street and through Piccadilly Circus, and I wanted the shot: the bus, the names, the iconic junction. Simple enough. I'd jump off on Regent Street, run ahead to the junction, and be waiting as the bus swept through. What I had failed to properly account for, in the considerable excitement of the moment and the considerable heat of a packed central London afternoon, was quite how far I was from Piccadilly Circus when I alighted. Reader, it was much, much further than it looked. What followed was a sprint of some determination - both cameras, full kit, thirty-degree heat, the full length of Regent Street (maybe, surely) - pursued by the dawning realisation that I had rather miscalculated the whole thing. I made it. Just. The bus crossed the junction, the names were on the sign, the light was perfect. Worth every step. Possibly.
The reception followed at the Swan London, with a balcony overlooking the river and St Paul's catching the full warmth of the summer afternoon. Then the whole party walked along the South Bank together to Doggett's Coat and Badge at Blackfriars, where exclusive use of the upstairs outer terrace gave them the evening sky, the bridge below, and the Thames stretching away in both directions. A perfect ending to a day that had moved, unhurried, through the very best of London.
There can be few more extraordinary venues to hold a wedding in London than the Fitzrovia Chapel - centrally located, yet intimate and unique, this Grade II*-listed nineteenth-century chapel exudes grace, beauty, history and Gothic charm. Designed by John Loughborough Pearson in the Gothic Revival style and built between 1891 and 1892, the chapel was originally the place of worship within the Middlesex Hospital - preserved while everything around it was demolished, and now standing in its own quiet square in the heart of Fitzrovia, Westminster. It seats 78 guests and is a registered venue for civil wedding ceremonies. For documentary wedding photography, it presents a wonderful challenge - the light is dim and warm, the space is intimate, the detail overwhelming - and the results, when you read the room correctly, are unlike anything else in London.
What follows is the full story of Hannah and Tom's day - from the quiet of the Native Bankside through to the terrace at Doggetts as the evening settled over the Thames. If you're planning a London wedding and want to see what documentary photography looks like across a day this varied and this beautiful, I think you'll find plenty here. And if Fitzrovia Chapel is on your list - or any combination of South Bank venues - I'd very much love to talk.
