Aidan & Charlotte | Lambeth Town Hall

Written By Oliver Holder
Aidan and Charlotte crossing the road in Brixton after their ceremony
Aidan & Charlotte

Lambeth Town Hall · The Workshop · The Department Store

A Documentary Wedding Story

An intimate South London wedding — vows at Lambeth Town Hall, a first look in the arched walkway, one long table at the Half Moon in Herne Hill and an evening at The Department Store in Brixton.

Getting Ready Together

Aidan and Charlotte got ready together, which is still the exception rather than the rule and I wish it were the other way round. They shared the morning right up to the point where Charlotte went to put her dress on — coffee, music, the two of them talking to each other rather than to two separate rooms of nervous people.

Then a walk to the town hall through South London on an ordinary weekday street, past a bus stop and a shopfront, which is one of the things I love most about photographing a city wedding. The day does not happen in a bubble. It happens in the middle of everyone else’s Tuesday.

Black and white photograph of Charlotte having her make-up done before her London wedding Charlotte getting ready in warm lamplight on the morning of the wedding Black and white photograph of Aidan and Charlotte getting ready together Aidan and Charlotte in their flat on the morning of the wedding Aidan and Charlotte talking together during preparations Charlotte laughing with Aidan before leaving for Lambeth Town Hall Aidan and Charlotte walking past a shopfront on the way to Lambeth Town Hall Charlotte reflected in the window of a bus stop outside Lambeth Town Hall

The Ceremony at Lambeth Town Hall

Lambeth Town Hall sits at the top of Brixton Hill, a great red-brick and Portland stone Edwardian pile of 1908 with a clock tower you can see from most of Brixton. Inside, the ceremony rooms are high-ceilinged and generously windowed, and the building has been restored well enough that the original tilework and joinery still do the heavy lifting.

The room they married in gave us tall side windows and pale walls, which is about as good as a register office gets. A civil ceremony is typically twenty to thirty minutes with no second take, a line you are not allowed to cross, and no flash — so you work from the side with whatever is coming through the glass. That is the whole job, and it is why knowing a building in advance matters.

Charlotte walking into the ceremony room at Lambeth Town Hall with her guests standing The wedding ceremony in progress at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton Aidan and Charlotte facing each other during their ceremony at Lambeth Town Hall Aidan and Charlotte smiling at one another as they say their vows Black and white detail of Aidan and Charlotte holding hands during the ceremony Black and white photograph of Charlotte during the ceremony at Lambeth Town Hall Aidan and Charlotte signing the register at Lambeth Town Hall

A First Look in the Walkway

The best frames of the day came from the town hall’s arched walkway — a long, colonnaded run of brick and stone with light pouring in from one end and deep shadow at the other. Aidan and Charlotte shared a first look there, and it is genuinely one of the strongest pieces of architecture I have photographed a couple in anywhere in London.

Both of them are architects, which explains a good deal about the buildings they chose.

Black and white photograph of Aidan and Charlotte in the arched walkway at Lambeth Town Hall Black and white silhouette of Aidan and Charlotte in the Lambeth Town Hall walkway Aidan and Charlotte with her bouquet against the brickwork outside Lambeth Town Hall

A town hall ceremony, a pub dining room and a rooftop is one of my favourite shapes for a London wedding — small, walkable, and using the city rather than hiding from it. There is a lot more on how I cover a day like this on the London page, and the micro weddings page is worth a look if you are planning something intimate.

London wedding photography Micro weddings Venue guides

Confetti, and Across the Road

Confetti on the steps, guests on both sides, and then the whole party simply walked out into Brixton and crossed the road. No cars, no logistics, no forty minutes lost in transit.

Confetti thrown over Aidan and Charlotte outside Lambeth Town Hall

The Workshop at the Half Moon, Herne Hill

Dinner was at The Workshop at the Half Moon in Herne Hill — the events space behind one of the great South London pubs, all exposed brick, steel windows and festoon bulbs strung the length of the room. One long table, wildflowers down the middle, and everybody within earshot of everybody else.

The speeches were the highlight, and this is the room to have them in: the brickwork throws the light back warm, the ceiling is low enough to keep the sound in, and nobody is sitting eight tables away from the person talking. Almost none of the frames I care about from a set of speeches are of the speaker — they are of the face four seats down that has just realised where the story is going.

The long table set for dinner at The Workshop at the Half Moon in Herne Hill Wildflowers and place settings along the table at The Workshop at the Half Moon Aidan and Charlotte photographed through a doorway at The Workshop at the Half Moon Aidan and Charlotte holding each other against a green velvet curtain Black and white photograph of Aidan and Charlotte against exposed brickwork Black and white photograph of the long table during dinner at The Workshop at the Half Moon Guests raising a toast under festoon lights at The Workshop at the Half Moon Guests laughing during the speeches at The Workshop at the Half Moon in Herne Hill A guest giving a speech under the bulbs at The Workshop at the Half Moon Black and white photograph of guests reacting to a wedding speech Aidan raising a glass during the toasts at The Workshop at the Half Moon

The Evening at The Department Store, Brixton

A short break, and then up a gear. The Department Store in Brixton is the old Bon Marché building — a Victorian department store on Ferndale Road, rebuilt by Squire and Partners as their own studio and now one of the most texturally interesting buildings in South London. Raw brick, salvaged timber, exposed steel and a roof terrace over the rooftops.

For a photographer it is a gift: there is a surface worth photographing against in every direction, and the light at the top of that building in the evening is superb. The party went on well past the point where anyone was checking the time.

A guest photographed through glass during the reception The wedding cake on the table during the evening celebration Black and white photograph of Charlotte laughing during the evening Guests laughing together during the evening reception Aidan and Charlotte dancing with guests around them in the evening Guests dancing late in the evening at Aidan and Charlotte’s wedding A guest with a drink on the dance floor at the end of the night Guests celebrating together at the end of the evening

Aidan and Charlotte, thank you. Two architects who chose their buildings properly, a walkway that gave me the frames of the year, and a party that used three of the best rooms in South London in one day.

If you are planning something similar there is more on London wedding photography and on micro weddings.

Ceremony: Lambeth Town Hall, 1 Brixton Hill, London SW2
Dinner: The Workshop at the Half Moon, 10 Half Moon Lane, Herne Hill, London SE24
Evening: The Department Store, 248 Ferndale Road, Brixton, London SW9
Photography: Oliver Holder

Planning your own London town hall wedding? I would love to hear about it.

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