Getting Married at Chelsea Old Town Hall: A Complete Guide

Few addresses say London quite like it. Chelsea Old Town Hall sits halfway along the King’s Road, a grand civic landmark that has been home to the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office for generations, and it remains one of the most loved places in the city to marry. This is a photographer’s guide to getting married here: the rooms, how to book it, how the day tends to flow, and the spots worth photographing once you step back outside.

A landmark on the King’s Road

The building is really two joined together. The original vestry hall, behind on Chelsea Manor Gardens, was designed by John McKean Brydon and opened in 1887. The grander King’s Road frontage, with its full-height columns and the clock that projects over the street, was added by Leonard Stokes and completed in 1907. Both parts are listed, and the interiors have been carefully restored, so you get heritage and good light in equal measure. There is far more on the architecture and the individual rooms in my guide to the venue itself.

The three ceremony rooms

The register office licenses three rooms for ceremonies, so you can match the room to the size of your day:

• The Harrington Room, for up to eight guests. The smallest and most intimate, lovely for an elopement or a tiny weekday wedding.
• The Rossetti Room, for up to twelve guests. Entered through a neoclassical arch, with deep green panelling and gilded paintings.
• The Brydon Room, for up to thirty-eight guests. The largest and most sought-after, panelled in soft neutral tones with tall windows and imposing double doors. It is where most full-day weddings here take place.

How to actually book it

This is the part couples find confusing, because there are two separate things to arrange, and you do them in different places.

First, book the ceremony room and registrar with the Royal Borough. You make a provisional booking online for your date, room and a registrar. To hold it you pay a booking fee plus part of the attendance fee, with the balance due a few months before the day. The earliest you can lock a date in fully is twelve months ahead, and Saturdays go first, so if a summer Saturday matters to you, treat the booking as the first thing you do.

Second, give Notice of Marriage, separately, at your own local register office. This is the legal step and it has nothing to do with Chelsea unless you happen to live in the borough. You give notice in the district where you live, after living there for at least seven days, and you must do it no later than twenty-nine days before the wedding. If the two of you live in different areas, you each give notice at your own local office. Notice stays valid for twelve months.

On fees, the registration costs are modest and published: notice is £46.50 per person, a registrar to marry you at the office is £62, and a marriage certificate is £12.50. Room hire is the variable part and is not listed on a fixed page, so confirm the current price for your chosen room and date directly with the register office on 020 7361 4100. Figures are correct at the time of writing, but always check the latest with the Royal Borough.

How the day tends to flow

A register office ceremony is shorter than people expect, usually around twenty to thirty minutes, so the day moves quickly and that is part of its charm. I photograph the ceremony quietly from one spot, with no flash, then everything spills out onto the front steps for the confetti. The Chelsea registrars are wonderful about this: they will hold you inside for a moment until I am set up outside, so the exit is never rushed or missed. After that we steal ten or fifteen relaxed minutes for portraits nearby and have you back with your guests before the drinks run dry.

The famous front-steps confetti

The wide stone steps onto the King’s Road are the signature shot of a Chelsea Old Town Hall wedding, and one of the most photographed wedding spots in London. There are rules worth knowing (biodegradable petals only, and only outside on the steps), and a knack to getting it right. I have written all of it up in a separate piece on the best confetti for a Chelsea Old Town Hall wedding, including what photographs best and how to choreograph the throw.

The best photo spots a short walk away

One of the quiet advantages of marrying here is that you barely have to move for beautiful portraits.

• The steps and the entrance. The columned facade and, when the florists have dressed it, a full floral arch over the door, give you a grand backdrop without taking a single step off the property.
• The King’s Road itself. Boutiques, galleries and that unmistakable Chelsea glamour make for relaxed, characterful portraits and an easy walk to anywhere you are heading next.
• Duke of York Square and the Saatchi Gallery. A short stroll toward Sloane Square, with open courtyards and clean modern stone, handy if you are walking on to the station or a restaurant.
• St Luke’s Gardens. A few minutes away on Sydney Street, the leafy gardens around the Gothic St Luke’s Church give you greenery and a dramatic backdrop, the closest thing to a country churchyard in the middle of Chelsea.

Getting there

Sloane Square is about a ten-minute walk straight down the King’s Road, and South Kensington is a touch closer if you are coming from that direction. The venue sits among the area’s restaurants and hotels, so guests rarely have far to travel between the ceremony and wherever you celebrate afterwards.

A photographer who knows the building

Small details make a register office day run smoothly: knowing where the light falls in the room, where to stand for the exit, and how to use the few minutes you have outside. If you are marrying here, read my venue guide and confetti guide, see how register office photography works, or look at how I photograph weddings and the collections. Chelsea and central London are where many of my weddings happen, and I would love to photograph yours here.