About the Venue

Alan & Metok first heard about the venue when Metok attended her law school ball there in 2006. Her friend Cecilia remembers Metok saying that if she ever got married in London, she would want to be married there (not knowing they even do weddings in that venue.) They consider it one of the most beautiful places they have ever been. The Independent newspaper agreed, rating it as one of the top 50 most beautiful places to get married in the world. The roof gardens cover 1.5 acres on top of the former Derry and Toms building on the Kensington High Street. It is situated 30 meters (100 ft) above street level on the 6th floor of the building with a panoramic view over West London. The gardens are the largest roof gardens in Europe.

The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect on the instructions of Trevor Bowens who was then the vice president of Barkers, the Kensington department store. The building then housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973 and then Biba until 1975. In 1981, Sir Richard Branson bought the Roof gardens and developed it as part of the Virgin Limited Edition – a luxury portfolio of Virgin Hotels Group Ltd. The portfolio includes Necker Island, Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco, Ulusaba Private Game Reserve in South Africa, Sa Terra Rotja in Mallorca, The Lodge, Verbier in Switzerland, Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands and Lady B, a luxury catamaran.

It is divided into three themed gardens:

• a Spanish garden, in a Moorish style based upon the Alhambra in Spain, with fountains, vine-covered walkways and Chusan palms.

• a Tudor style garden, characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging wisteria. Roses, lilies and lavender contribute the rich summer scent to the garden.

• an English woodland garden, with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a garden pond that is the home to pintail ducks and two Chilean flamingos. There are over 30 different species of trees in the woodland garden, including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago, despite having only a metre of soil in which to grow.