London locations
Greenwich photoshoot
Permits, light and what to expect on the day.
London locations
Permits, light and what to expect on the day.
Colonnades, the river, the observatory hill and long views back to the city. That is what brings people to Greenwich with a camera.
Before the shoot there are two questions. Who controls the ground you will stand on, and whether they want a permit.
| Greenwich | |
|---|---|
| Who controls it | Greenwich Park is a Royal Park, so the portrait permit above applies. |
| Good for | Colonnades, the river, the observatory hill and long views back to the city. |
| Light | The view from the hill works in the evening when the city towers light up behind the subject. |
| Busiest | The park and the town are two different permissions. |
Greenwich Park is a Royal Park, so the portrait permit above applies. The streets and the riverside are the borough, where FilmFixer runs the film office.
Checked on 25 September 2026. Rules and fees change, so confirm with the authority before the shoot.
The view from the hill works in the evening when the city towers light up behind the subject.
The park and the town are two different permissions. Plan the shoot on one side or allow time to move between them.
Mariya's verdict. Scout the exact spot before the day. A location is a specific corner at a specific hour, not a postcode.
Apply early. Most London film offices want notice measured in days, not hours.
Carry the permission with you. Whoever asks will want to see it, not hear about it.
Keep the group small. Permits are written around numbers of people, and a large group changes the answer.
Have a second location within walking distance. Weather and crowds ruin a plan more often than permits do.
Insurance matters. The Royal Parks ask for five million pounds of public liability cover, and other landowners ask for the same thing in different words.
Cutty Sark on the DLR, or the river boat from central London.
Comfortable shoes for the hill and a long lens for the view from the top.
Booking an hour and spending most of it walking up to the observatory.
None of that is a reason to avoid the place. It is a reason to arrive knowing the answer before somebody asks you for it.
| Who controls it | More than one authority |
| Permit needed | Yes, from each authority involved |
| Notice to allow | Take the longest notice period |
| Insurance | Ask each one |
| Worth knowing | Confirm which ground you stand on |
| Nearest stations | Cutty Sark on the DLR, or the river boat from central London. |
| What to carry | Comfortable shoes for the hill and a long lens for the view from the top. |
Rules and fees change. Confirm with the authority named above before the shoot, and treat this table as a starting point rather than a permission.
| Where | What it gives you | When it works |
|---|---|---|
| The colonnades at the Old Royal Naval College | Repeating columns | Morning |
| The hill below the Observatory | The skyline behind the subject | Evening |
| Greenwich Market | Covered, timber, warm | Any time, useful in rain |
A location is a corner at an hour, not a postcode. Pick one of these and build the session around it.
An hour in Greenwich is three stops, not one.
We start at The colonnades at the Old Royal Naval College, because it is the frame most people came for and it is quietest first.
Then The hill below the Observatory, which changes the background without changing the light.
We finish at Greenwich Market, which gives a different scale and a different mood.
Walking between them is part of the session rather than lost time. Most of the unposed frames happen on the way.
If the permit covers one hour, that is the whole plan. Adding a fourth stop means rushing all four.
Carry what you can walk with. Every location in this city involves more walking than the map suggests.
A tripod changes the permission you need in most of these places, so plan handheld unless the permit says otherwise.
Bring water and a bag you can keep on your shoulder. Nothing gets put down on a London pavement twice.
Autumn, for low light across the park and colour in the trees.
Winter evenings, when the towers across the river light up early.
Summer weekends are very busy with visitors.
Classic shapes suit the architecture.
Long coats work well on the hill, where there is usually wind.
Flat shoes for the climb, which is steeper than it looks.
The covered market.
The Painted Hall and the college buildings, which have their own rules and their own charges.
More than one authority covers this location, so establish which ground your camera stands on before you apply.
A park, a street and a private estate can meet within a hundred metres here.
Apply to each one that applies, and allow the longest of their notice periods.
If the shoot moves during the session, that is more than one permission.
Nearby, with different rules and a different look: Richmond Park, Soho and Hampstead Heath.
The full list of occasions is on event photography in London.
Tell me the date and I will tell you which permission applies and how long it takes to get.
If the date is fixed and the permit cannot arrive in time, there is almost always a nearby alternative with a lighter process.
Sessions are priced by time rather than by location, and the rates are on the services page.
This page is written by Mariya Harley, a fashion, portrait and hotel photographer working from a studio in west London.
The tools described here are the ones that reach a working photographer's desk, and the failures described are the ones that reach a client's screen.
Prices and features are read from vendor pages rather than repeated from other articles. The date of that check is printed above each table.
Nothing here is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. A tool appears because it does the job, or because people ask about it.
What is deliberately absent: benchmark scores copied from press releases, rankings that change with the season, and any claim that software can replace direction, light or responsibility for the result.
If a price here is out of date, the vendor page wins. Tell me and I will correct it.