The best London register offices for your ceremony - Hackney Town Hall
If you're planning your wedding, you may well be considering a register office for your ceremony. Register offices are seeing a rise in popularity, with civil ceremonies increasingly outnumbering religious marriages every year since 1992. Nowadays many registries are beautiful, ornate rooms softly lit and filled with flowers, and the perfect place for an intimate ceremony with family and friends.
Many modern couples choose to marry in civil ceremonies at a town hall or register office as they feel more comfortable with a less religious ceremony. Registry ceremonies are also more customisable, and can have their choice of music and speeches. (You can even have a dog as your ring bearer!) Holding your wedding at a registry office can be far more budget friendly, with a ceremony costing as little as £275 in contrast with bigger events.
Here at Perfocal, we get to see a lot of wedding photos! We wanted to use our knowledge of the prettiest, most popular and most unique town halls and register offices to help couples planning their big day.
We've used some photos from real-life weddings shot by Perfocal photographers, that we hope will help you get to see your potential wedding venue in a new light!
As the next part of our series, here's our next choice for the best town halls for a registry wedding. This week it's Hackney Town Hall.
If you're short on time, here are the quick facts about the Hackney Town Hall:
- The Lanchester suite is the only room for civil ceremonies and registries.
- There are four rooms for receptions and weddings (not for civil ceremony): The Assembly Hall, The Committee Rooms, The Council Chamber and The Atria (North and South)
- Bring your own photographer! You can book a wedding & civil ceremony photographer here, starting at £99.
- The ceremony suite still can accommodate 14 guests including the couple which in total 16 people in the room, for the health and safety purpose.
- You can book the Lanchester suite for your ceremony online by completing this online form, starting at £275 from 1st April 2021- 31st March 2022. If you would like to reschedule for your appointment, there will be an administration fee £50.
A Brief History of Hackney Town Hall
Built in 1937 to replace the 'Old Town Hall', Hackney Town Hall sits at the top of Mare Street behind the Hackney Empire theatre. The Grade II listed building has a large open space on its doorstep, which was the site of the now-demolished Hackney Vestry Hall.
The grand building is simple yet beautiful in its Art Deco in style, and built in a wonderful pale Portland stone.
We love the space outside of Hackney Town Hall which gives you ample room to play and get some amazing photos (with or without guests), as well as its beautiful facade which compliments photos beautifully.
The town hall has just a single registry room, called the Lanchester Suite.
The cost for hiring out the Lanchester suite for your ceremony goes as low as £275 if you pick a Tuesday or a Thursday.
On Saturdays, prices are higher, but you'll be able to customise the ceremony with your own vows etc. Weekday ceremonies at Hackney Town Hall are very simple and are not available for customisation.
Inside the Town Hall
Once through the main doors of Hackney Town Hall, you arrive in a large Art-Deco foyer space, which has made for some great photo opportunities for Perfocal customers. Meeting arriving guests, getting dressed, and making final preparations before the ceremony are all done in this attractive space.
The Lanchester Suite
The Lanchester Suite is currently the only room available for civil wedding ceremonies at Hackney Town Hall.
It has been recently renovated, with pleasing deep-blue walls and dark wood panelling and embellishment. The dark colour scheme of this room is not common at many wedding registries, but we think it perfectly compliments these couples' photos. The blue of the walls and the soft lighting warms and gives depth to these precious pictures.
Within Hackney Town Hall, there are several other large and extravagant halls in which you are able to have your ceremony or reception. These rooms are available for weddings, too, but not civil registries.
These rooms include the Assembly Hall, the Committee Rooms, the Council Chamber, and the North and South Atria.
The Assembly Hall
The Committee Rooms
The Council Chamber
The Atria (North and South)
These stunning event spaces within Hackney Town Hall have recently undergone a major re-vamp worth millions of pounds. They certainly look the part for an extravagant wedding or reception. Each space can fit anywhere from 30 to 300 guests.
Regardless of the grandiose reception and wedding spaces, Perfocal loves Hackney Town Hall for its intimate registry and civil weddings hosted in the Lancaster Suite.
We think Hackney Town Hall is one of the UK's best register offices because of its prime location in one of London's most vibrant boroughs, surrounded by the some of the coolest venues in the city. The architecture is simple and beautiful, such is the classic Art-Deco style. Some of our coolest, yet most chic weddings have taken place and been captured beautifully, here.
Are you getting married and considering booking a wedding photographer?
Your wedding day is a momentous occasion, and for most people a once-in-a-lifetime event. Make sure you don’t fork out a fortune for your photos. You can hire a pro photographer simply and affordably with Perfocal instead.
We guarantee quick and simple booking, an amazing professional photographer who will travel to you, and 48 hour photo delivery every time.
We do all this so you can have amazing wedding photos without the price tag.
Read more relevant articles:
- Frances' red winter wedding
- How to arrange the perfect small wedding
- Kris' contemporary Manchester wedding
Other articles in this series: