Venue hire at Chelsea Physic Garden
The Garden bestows a unique and beautiful backdrop for any occasion; and by choosing to hold your event at the Garden you also help us bring our charitable purpose to fruition, and safeguard our plant collection for future generations.
Corporate hire
Our London venue offers not only outdoor space but also elegant indoor space. Find out about our Gallery room which overlooks the iconic Chelsea Physic Garden.
Hire the Garden
Spend a relaxed spring or summer afternoon with exclusive use of the beautiful Chelsea Physic Garden for your private Garden Party. A day in the garden with family and friends is a special and memorable way to celebrate.
How hiring helps
When you hire The Chelsea Physic garden your money goes to support the work of caring for the collections of plants and The Garden for future generations.
The Chelsea Physic Garden sets out to: maintain the documented plant collections, provide programmes of educational activities, demonstrate the development of the science and practice of horticulture, and promote the importance of the conservation of plants and the natural environment.
FAQs
Chelsea Physic Garden is a botanic garden and a predominantly outdoor venue. The majority of events held at the Garden will hire a marquee or tent on one or both of our lawns to serve as both a centrepiece to the event and a shelter for wet weather. These vary from traditional white lawn marquees, to maharajah tents, canvas sail tents and tipis.
The structures available to hire from our accredited marquee and tent suppliers can be completely weather-sealed, and in some cases are certified to withstand winds of up to 80mph.
Our accredited marquee suppliers can also typically provide heaters, gazebos, AC, parasols, and other provisions for very hot or very cold weather.
We have indoor event spaces—the Physic Garden Café, and the Gallery—that can accommodate up to 60 guests seated or 80 standing.
We have different venue hire options available, from £900 for the hire of our Gallery to £12,000 for the full-day Saturday exclusive hire.
The Garden is a dry-hire venue, which means that event services such as food and drink, marquee hire, music and floristry, are provided independently by our partner accredited suppliers.
The total cost of your event including these services will vary based on your guest numbers, your personal preferences, the suppliers you choose, and the date and time of year.
For an exclusive hire of the Garden, we recommend a minimum total budget of £40,000.
The Garden is a Grade-I listed heritage site, and conservation area of botanic interest. We are also host to a number of rare, tropical and poisonous plants some of which are endangered or extinct in the wild. Great care must be taken to prevent damage or the introduction of plant disease into the site.
Accordingly, we only permit suppliers and contractors that have undergone our premises accreditation to work on the site. A full list of our accredited suppliers can be found here: Event Suppliers – Chelsea Physic Garden.
If you wish to use a supplier for your event that is not currently accredited with us, and that supplier’s service is unobtrusive and low-risk, please speak to the Garden Events Coordinator as they may be eligible for a limited accredited supplier status. Upon approval, we may apply a fee of up to £1,000 to your Total Hire Charge, and we may charge the supplier a commission of 10% + VAT.
You should not enter into a formal agreement with a non-accredited supplier until we grant approval. This approval process is at the discretion of the Garden, and we cannot guarantee that any given supplier will be accredited.
The Garden is located in the centre of London, and local parking is limited. There is on-street parking in the Garden’s vicinity, with most restrictions lifted from 5.30pm on a weekday, and 1.30pm on a Saturday. We recommend that guests coming to the Garden do so by car make use of the large car park at Battersea Park, approximately 15 minutes’ walk from the Garden across Albert Bridge.
There is vehicle access to the Garden through a gate on Chelsea Embankment, where up to two cars may park inside the Garden on a gravel ramp.
Music must not exceed 80dB when measured 10 metres away from the source. Acoustic drums are not permitted at the Garden, and there is a limit on the number of amplifiers used.
The Garden is licensed to have alcohol at events. Please speak with your caterer in regard to corkage.
Fireworks, sky lanterns, flairs, drones and confetti are not permitted at any private events at Chelsea Physic Garden: this also included rice, petals or biodegradable confetti in the Garden. Bubbles make for a great alternative.
At the moment we are unable to facilitate a legal wedding ceremony within the Garden. You would be welcome to hold a humanist ceremony in the Garden and complete the legal element of the marriage within the Gallery.
Dry-hire means that you are only paying Chelsea Physic Garden for use of our space. Although we are happy to help suggest suppliers we do not source any suppliers for you.
We would be more than happy to arrange a private viewing for you. We will take you around the Garden and help you to envisage what your day will look like. Please do get in touch via our enquiry form to book a viewing.
