St Paul’s Couple Shoot Locations: A Photographer’s Guide

Couples ask us where to do a shoot in London more than they ask anything else, and our honest answer is usually the same square half-mile: the quarter around St Paul's Cathedral. Within a short walk you get a ruined church garden, cobbled Victorian lanes, the river, and the cathedral itself, and in the evening you get them close to empty. Every photograph in this guide comes from one real evening session there, Tatiana and William's couple shoot, so what you see is what the route actually gives you.

Start: St Dunstan in the East

The best-kept opening act in London. St Dunstan is the church the Blitz wrecked and the City never rebuilt; instead they planted a garden inside the shell, so you walk through gothic arches wrapped in ivy with a palm tree where the nave used to be. It is small, which is part of the trick: half an hour here gives you arches, window tracery, garden paths and cobbles without moving more than fifty metres. We have written a full guide to shooting at St Dunstan, including when it is quiet.

The lanes between the garden and the river

From St Dunstan, the Square Mile drops towards the Thames through steep little lanes that most visitors never find: cobbles, gas-style lanterns, stone archways with parish boundary markers from the 1700s still bolted to the walls. After office hours they are genuinely deserted, and they photograph like a period drama with a glass tower or two photobombing the skyline, which is exactly London.

The river

The Thames path gives the route its open air and its light. On a clear evening the low sun comes straight up the river, and the riverside walls and steps make easy, relaxed pictures between the bigger set pieces. This is also the flattest, easiest stretch of the walk, a good place to just hold hands and talk while we work.

Finish: the cathedral

St Paul's is the finale, and it earns it. The moment the dome first fills the street stops people mid-step. Then the churchyard with its red telephone boxes, the steps up to the west front, the columns and the chequerboard floor by the great oak doors, and finally the Festival Gardens on the south side as the light goes blue. In the evening you can often have the west front almost to yourselves, which at midday is unthinkable.

The practical bits

Go in the evening. The City empties after work, the light turns warm and low, and every location on this route gets quieter as the hour goes on. Sunday mornings are the other quiet window. Wear shoes you can walk in, or bring them: there are cobbles and steps throughout, and the whole route is about half an hour of gentle walking spread over two hours of shooting. St Dunstan is a public garden with opening hours, so if you want an early start there, check the current times first. For what to wear against all this stone, our engagement shoot guide has an honest section on colours and fabrics, and if your shoot is ahead of a wedding, the pre-wedding shoot guide explains how the session fits into the bigger day.