A Living Museum

Founded in 1673, the Grade-I listed Chelsea Physic Garden is London’s oldest botanic garden and an oasis of green in the heart of one of the world’s most iconic urban districts. Our Grade-I listed four-acre grounds offer a beautiful backdrop to your occasion, comprising over 4,500 individual plant specimens sourced from across the world, and meticulously curated over 350 years of horticultural science. From the continent’s oldest pond rockery to the tropical plants house in our Victorian Glasshouses; the kaleidoscopic Dicotyledon Order Beds, Ginkgo trees, fragrant Mediterranean herbs, and the intimate paths and peripheries enclosing our two professionally maintained lawns— the Garden provides a stunning location for a function of any size, and has a character and history unique amongst any other venue in Central London.

Your venue, your vision

Our highly versatile dry-hire format makes the Garden exclusively your own and lets you design your own event with your own choice of food and drink, marquee, music, flowers and decorations. The Garden curates a list of accredited event suppliers carefully selected each year for their established industry excellence, their performance at events in the past, and for sharing our own commitment to ethical and sustainable working practices.

Event spaces and facilities

The exclusive hire of the garden grants private use of our entire four-acre site. Our lawns are some of the oldest continuously maintained green spaces in the city and provide plenty of open space for your reception, ceremony or both. The lawns can be used for a tent or marquee—built, furnished and decorated for anywhere between 12 and 200 guests through one of our accredited suppliers. A marquee will provide both a centrepiece for the occasion as well as a cover from wet and windy British weather. The Physic Garden Café marquee is a 6m x 12m Claremont marquee adjacent to our main lawn. It is available for use as a standalone reception space for up to 60 guests seated, but for larger numbers it can also be cleared and converted into a versatile back-of-house or catering area. The Gallery is the Garden’s indoor private function room, located on the first floor of the Garden’s main building. It is available for use as a ceremony hall for up to 60 seated, or as a secure storage space or bridal suite. The visitor welcome building is situated along Royal Hospital Road and houses the Garden’s visitor lobby and bathroom facilities. It can serve also serve as a drop-off and cloakroom area. The Garden is also a licensed venue within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, enabling you to conduct your legal ceremony anywhere on our grounds if you wish.

How you help us

Chelsea Physic Garden is not just a venue but a small and independent charity founded to demonstrate the medicinal, economic and cultural importance of plants to the wellbeing of humankind. By hiring the Garden for your wedding, you help contribute to that mission, raising funds towards school activities, our community and public programmes, the maintenance of our historic facilities, volunteering and traineeships, and preserving our plant collection for future generations.