St Dunstan in the East: A Couple Shoot Guide

Ask a London photographer for the most romantic corner of the Square Mile and most of us will give you the same answer: St Dunstan in the East, the ruined church a few minutes above the Thames that the City turned into a garden. Arches with no roof, windows with no glass, ivy doing what ivy does, and a palm tree growing where the congregation used to sit. Couples travel across London for photographs here, and this guide covers how we shoot it and when to come.

What it actually is

There has been a church on this spot since Saxon times. The Great Fire damaged it, Christopher Wren gave it a new tower, and the Blitz finally gutted the rest. Rather than rebuild, the City planted a public garden inside the walls in the 1970s, and that decision is why it photographs like nowhere else in London: proper gothic stonework, softened everywhere by green.

How it photographs

The garden is small, and that is its gift. Within fifty metres you have the famous ivy-hung arches, the big empty tracery window, garden paths edged with flowers, cobbles, and benches under the old walls. Nothing is a walk away, so a session here is unhurried: we move a few steps, the backdrop changes completely, and you spend the time being together rather than travelling between spots. In the last hour of sun the light comes through the trees in low, warm shafts, and the stone goes honey-coloured.

When to come

Timing matters more here than at almost any other London location, because the garden is loved. Weekday lunchtimes belong to City workers eating sandwiches, and weekend afternoons bring a steady stream of visitors. The quiet windows are early morning and weekday evenings, when we have often had it close to empty. It is a public garden with opening hours, so check the current times before planning anything at the edges of the day. And if it rains, the arches read even moodier: this is one of the few locations that arguably improves in grey weather.

Make it a route, not a spot

St Dunstan sits at the start of our favourite evening walk in London: down through the cobbled lanes to the Thames, along the river, and up to St Paul's Cathedral for golden hour. You can see the whole route in our St Paul's couple shoot locations guide, and what a real evening on it looks like in Tatiana and William's session. For planning the wider shoot, from timing to what to wear, start with the London engagement shoot guide.