Where to propose in South London

21 of the 94 London spots we price are south of the river — Battersea, Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Putney, Vauxhall and out to Crystal Palace. They start at £499 all in and the middle one starts at £962.

South is where the free proposals are: 6 of the 7 spots that charge nothing at all for the space are here. They are public parks and they stay open while you are in them, which is the honest half of that sentence.

14 South London spots we can name

A proposal takes about four hours of the venue: an hour to an hour and a half to set it up, an hour for the moment itself, an hour to clear it away. So the venue figures you’ll see are worked out on a four-hour booking, not on the hour you’re in the room.

We check this price with the venue for your date before you pay anything.

• 
  Battersea Park — Old English Garden

  Battersea

  All in £499

  A Sunday walk through Battersea Park, nothing more than that. You turn in through one of its two metal gates and it is a walled garden — twenty-five beds, a long wisteria pergola, rose arbours along the north side, a sundial, and a lily pond with a fountain urn at the centre — set for you on the brick paths, because the paths are the only ground anything may legally stand on. Under thirty people with nothing on legs needs no application and costs nothing, but it stays a public garden and the park gates shut at half past ten.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Public garden: nothing staked or tabled, and we keep it small
  • Subject to availability — the council runs its own events here and can close the garden.

  Photo: Ethan Doyle White, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

• 
  Greenland Pier

  Surrey Quays / Rotherhithe

  All in, around £499

  You have told them you are getting the river bus home from Surrey Quays. The boat goes without you, and you are left standing on the south bank of the Thames with Canary Wharf directly across the water — it is a single cross-river hop from this pier, four pounds ten. It is a working Thames Clippers pier, open to anyone with a ticket and running until nearly midnight on a weekday, so the whole thing happens in the gap between two sailings and nothing of ours can be in the way.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • Based on the venue’s published rate — we confirm before you book
  • Boats call through the day and into the evening, so this is built around the gap between two sailings. Nothing may block the gangway.
  • Subject to availability — it is a working river-bus pier and the sailings come first.

  Photo: Philip Halling / geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

• 
  Manor House Gardens

  Lee

  All in, around £499

  A Sunday walk round the lake, they think — the ornamental one, with the fountain jet running and the timber viewing platform out over the water. The spot you picked is on the open lawn that slopes down to it, dressed and waiting, LED candles and all, because the park's byelaw rules out a real flame. It stays a family park the whole way through, children, dogs and the cafe queue included, so we keep it small, put nothing into the ground, and carry everything in from Old Road.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Based on the venue’s published rate — we confirm before you book
  • Council application for any set-up; insurance may be required
  • Subject to availability — the council runs its own events here and can close the gardens.

  Photo: Dr Neil Clifton, geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

• 
  Southwark Park — By the Lake

  Rotherhithe / Bermondsey

  All in £499

  We have done this one before, which is why the photographs on the card are ours: the balustrade over the lake, the fountain going behind you. There is no gate here and nothing to book — it is open parkland, so whoever else is in the park that morning will be in the park. Early is the answer.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Public park with no gate: nothing staked or tabled, and we keep it small
  • Subject to availability — the council runs its own events here and can close the lakeside.

  Photo: our own setup at Southwark Park, August 2026

• 
  Southwark Park — The Bandstand

  Rotherhithe / Bermondsey

  All in £499

  A walk through the park on the way home, nothing planned. The bandstand is where the paths meet, and it is covered, so rain does not change the plan — there is even power at it. We set up before you get there and clear it the same day, and the space itself costs nothing.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Public park with no gate: nothing staked or tabled, and we keep it small. The bandstand is covered, so rain is not a problem.
  • Public ground — nothing staked, nothing tabled, and we keep it small. There is power at the bandstand: three outdoor-rated double sockets. Subject to availability — the council runs its own events here and can close the bandstand.

  Photo: London Less Travelled, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

• 
  Wandsworth Park — Thames riverside path

  Putney

  All in £499

  Golden hour is the whole argument for this one: a plane-tree avenue on the Thames at Putney with the light coming down the river at you. It stays a public path throughout, and weekends bring runners and cyclists past, so make it a weekday, bring a rug and flowers, and leave anything that needs planting in the ground at home.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Public park, uncovered; nothing staked or tabled, and we keep it small
  • Subject to availability — the council runs its own events here and can close the path.

  Photo: Marathon / geograph.org.uk, CC BY-SA 2.0

• 
  bbodance — Muir-Warden Studio

  Wandsworth Town

  All in £702

  A friend's rehearsal at Battersea Reach that you have promised to look in on. It is a dance studio, forty-four square metres of it, with a sprung Harlequin floor, mirrors and a barre, and windows over the Thames. Everything in the room folds away — stacking chairs, folding tables — so what is standing in it when the door opens is ours, and they let outside catering in.

  • Bookable until 22:00, seven days a week. Weekday evenings and the whole of the weekend are charged at the higher rate.

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  San Mei Gallery — Gallery Space

  Loughborough Junction

  All in £1,275

  An exhibition in Loughborough Junction, they think. The gallery is closed to the public when it is booked, so the old floorboards and the tall windows and the grand piano are yours — twenty people could be in here and there will be two.

  • Daily 06:00–22:00

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  Exhibit — The Secret Garden

  Balham

  All in, from £1,049 to £1,324

  The private-hire package wants eleven guests, so for two of you this stays a shared garden — which matters less than it sounds, because nobody in a Balham bar is paying attention to the covered corner under the fairy lights. It is heated, so the season does not decide the date. We dress the table and are gone before you arrive.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • Tue–Sat 17:00–22:00; Sun 12:00–20:00; over-21s after 18:00

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  aspen & meursault — Private Snug & Courtyard

  Battersea

  All in, from £1,049 to £1,379

  Ask for the snug and its courtyard to stay closed when you book, because the venue can open them through into the cafe next door. The snug is a small windowless room — lime-washed plaster and exposed brick, one long dark wooden table, quilted grey velvet armchairs, a tiered pendant light — with a tiny courtyard enclosed by white walls beside it, and the main bar somewhere else entirely. Nothing adhesive and no glitter, so whatever we bring has to stand up on its own.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • Bookable 12:00-23:00 every day.

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  Van Gogh House — Gallery, Kitchen and Garden

  Stockwell

  All in, around £1,850

  A look at a house in Stockwell, you have said, something to do with a painter. It is the one Van Gogh lodged in, still a working gallery and artist residence, and a booking takes the gallery, the kitchen and the walled garden together — there is no shared or walk-in option, so the session is yours. Candles and any decoration are at the owners' discretion and have to be agreed in advance, and nothing may be attached to the walls.

  • Based on the venue’s published rate — we confirm before you book
  • Candles and decoration are at the owners' discretion and must be agreed in advance. Maximum 30 people in the house.

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  Tamesis Dock — The West Facing Deck

  Vauxhall

  All in £2,259

  Sunset runs straight up the river from the west deck of this old barge, which is the reason to be here and the reason to come on a weekday. It is a working bar boat: the pizza service is on, people cut past you to reach the toilets, and the deck fills up in good weather. Pick your hour, not your privacy.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • Open-air deck with an awning; over-18s only

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  The Greenwich Tavern — King William Room

  Greenwich

  All in, from £774 to £2,699

  The bar noise stays downstairs. Up here the tall windows look straight out at Greenwich Park, so the trees do half the decorating for you — and this is a proper private dining room rather than a corner of the pub. A weeknight is both the quieter option and the cheaper one.

  • In a residential area, so music and entertainment may be restricted.

  Photo: the venue's own listing

• 
  Battersea Park — The Bandstand

  Battersea

  All in, from £2,105 to £2,897

  You are cutting through Battersea Park on the way to somewhere else, they think. The bandstand stands on Central Avenue where all the park's paths meet — nine metres across, Victorian, covered, in a thirty-metre circle of hard standing with trees the whole way round. Twenty can sit beneath the roof, and it is a dry hire with power and water on site, so the kit and the suppliers are ours.

  • Semi-private: other guests nearby
  • April to September only
  • Closed Saturdays. Three-hour minimum booking; the £360 is per hour, not per session.

  Photo: the operator's own listing

How to choose between these

The free gardens are here, and they are public

Six of these charge nothing for the space, which puts the whole proposal at £499 — the decor and a photographer, and nothing else to pay. What none of them can give you is the place to yourselves. We set up early, work quickly, and pick the hour with you.

It is the widest spread on the list

From £499 to £2,897 all in, on one page. South holds both the cheapest thing we do and some of the dearest, so it is worth deciding the number before the neighbourhood. The full cost of each of these, and how the figures are worked out, is on the cost page.

The river is the spine of it

Rotherhithe, Putney, Greenwich and Vauxhall are all on the water, and all of them are at their best in the hour before sunset — which in December is half past three and in June is half past eight. Pick the hour first and the date will follow it.

Most of the cheap ones are April to September

Six of the 21 spots here will not take a booking outside April to September, and they are mostly the cheap outdoor ones. A South London park at half four in January is dark and wet. If your date is a winter one, the indoor spots on this page are the answer and the galleries page is the next one to read.

Who else will be there

Ten of these are places where other people will be nearby for at least part of it. Each one says so beside its price, in those words, rather than leaving you to find out on the day.

Seven of the 21 spots in South London are flats and lofts hired whole. They are published by description rather than by name, so we do not list them here — the finder goes through all 21 of them for you, with the whole figure for each.

Questions people ask

Where to go next

• Central London — the Central London spots . 16 of them, from £895 all in.
• East London — the East London spots . 35 of them, from around £609 all in.
• Where to propose in London — the whole list, and the other ways of cutting it.
• How much a proposal in London costs — the full cost of each of these, and how the figures are worked out.

Every figure here is worked out on a booking of about four hours, from the venue’s own published rate or a quote given to us. We check this price with the venue for your date before you pay anything. Last checked: 17 September 2026.