Hackney Town Hall · London E8
Hackney
Town Hall.
The room is only the beginning.
One wedding I photographed here ended at the Royal Inn on the Park with a bright-green cake, taxidermied mice and a guest in a pig’s nose. Ultan and Mitch’s involved immediate family, three hours, coffee, a pub and lunch at Brawn.
Ianthe and Patrick’s took them to Sesta on Wilton Way for lunch.
Jo and Will’s December wedding stayed here for the reception in the North Atrium.
Same steps. Very different weddings.
For a small ceremony, the Lanchester Suite currently holds up to 30 people. Hackney Council counts the witnesses, children and your photographer or videographer in that number. The larger Council Chamber, Committee Rooms, Assembly Hall and North Atria are a different booking arrangement: the venue and registrars are booked separately. Check the council’s current information for the Lanchester Suite and larger rooms before making plans.
After the ceremony, the steps give everybody a moment to find each other again. Hugs, congratulations, and somebody trying to organise a group photo while everyone else is already talking. The council asks for biodegradable confetti at the bottom of the steps, rather than on them. Worth telling whoever has been put in charge of the bags.
From there, the walk can be part of the wedding rather than a gap between locations. London Fields, Broadway Market, the canal, a pub, lunch: you can keep moving with the people you came with. I’d rather photograph what happens on the way than take you away from it to manufacture an idea of what wedding portraits ought to look like.
