Wedding Photographer Cambridge Union — Victorian Debating Chamber, Bridge Street and the University Setting
The Cambridge Union Society on Bridge Street is the oldest continuously operating debating society in the world — its Victorian debating chamber, built in 1866 to a design by Alfred Waterhouse in the Gothic Revival style, contains the original tiered benches, the speaker’s chair and the decorated chamber interior whose Victorian institutional atmosphere provides a wedding photography setting of unique academic character available at no other venue in England. The Union’s city-centre location on Bridge Street — directly opposite the gatehouse of St John’s College and within five minutes’ walk of King’s, Trinity and the Bridge of Sighs — gives it unmatched access to Cambridge’s collegiate portrait resources. For Cambridge Union wedding photography, the combination of a Victorian institutional interior of considerable Gothic character with the complete Cambridge collegiate portrait landscape immediately outside makes this a venue of extraordinary photographic richness.
The Debating Chamber, the Victorian Interior and the Bridge Street Setting
The Union’s debating chamber — the long Gothic Revival hall with its arched windows, the tiered oak benches and the speaker’s chair at the chamber’s south end — provides an interior portrait setting of deep Victorian institutional atmosphere: the warm-toned oak, the Gothic arched windows and the institutional formality of the debating arrangement create portrait compositions of strong architectural character. The Union’s garden behind the main building — a secluded enclosed space with the old debating pavilion and mature trees — provides a sheltered exterior space for drinks reception photography. Bridge Street itself — with the Round Church (Cambridge’s oldest surviving building, 1130) at one end and St John’s gatehouse opposite the Union entrance — provides a street-portrait setting of medieval Cambridge character immediately outside the venue door.
St John’s College, the Bridge of Sighs and the Cam
The Bridge of Sighs at St John’s College — the enclosed Gothic bridge of 1831 above the Cam, the most immediately photographically recognisable structure in Cambridge after King’s Chapel — is visible from the towpath directly below in the college’s grounds, thirty seconds from the Union’s entrance. St John’s First Court (1516), the Second Court (1598) and the covered bridge reflected in the Cam from the Magdalene Bridge provide portrait settings of Elizabethan collegiate architecture of the highest quality. The Backs, accessible via Garret Hostel Bridge five minutes’ walk south, extend the portrait route to include the Clare Bridge, the Wren Library and the Backs meadow in the standard Cambridge portrait walk available from the Union on any wedding day.