Historic London Town & Gardens — Attraction in Edgewater

Perfect wedding venue! We used Historic London Town and Gardens as the venue for our wedding this October. Full disclosure, London Town was the first venue and one of only two that we looked at in person. Our visit happened to be on a gorgeous autumn day – perfect blue sky, a little warm for the season – and we were really taken with the natural beauty of the gardens and how secluded the property felt. We really liked the idea of having our ceremony and cocktail hour outside, with the reception under the tent. And, we really didn’t want a generic ballroom or event space – we were looking for something that was pretty but not stuffy and was a little bit unique. London Town fit all of our criteria. We felt like we took a little bit of a risk with a partially outdoor venue because the weather is so unpredictable in the Mid-Atlantic in the Fall, but knowing that in the event of inclement weather everything could be moved inside gave us the comfort we needed to move forward.

On our wedding day (exactly one year after we first visited the venue), we were again lucky with absolutely perfect weather. One of the things we loved about London Town is that because the gardens are so beautiful on their own you don’t need to add a ton of decoration to them. Similarly, the tent has lighting built-in, so unless you are looking to use special spot-lighting, etc. there isn’t much you need to add there either. I also really appreciated the bridal suite in the Pavilion – it isn’t huge, but is a pretty space to take “getting ready” photos, doubled as our place to stash the wedding party’s personal belongings, and tripled as a refuge for our dear friend with an infant! Both during and after the wedding many of our guests shared how much they loved the venue and that it made a beautiful setting for the wedding.

Finally, I need to take a minute to talk about Keara, the Director of Events. Keara is the most responsive person I have ever encountered. It sometimes felt like she responded before I even hit ‘send’ on an email. Not only was she incredibly quick, she was patient with our endless questions, generous with vendor recommendations, and just a generally delightful person to work with. Historic London Town and Garden is a beautiful spot, but getting to work with Keara was truly a highlight for us in the planning process. We were absolutely thrilled with our wedding at London Town – it was without question the perfect venue for us, and I highly...

This is a really interesting place, honestly not really sure what to make of it. We are very happy to such a large and expensive piece of land preserved for semi-public use (if you are a member or pay the reasonable $10 admission fee). Great views of the river and very nice walking trail through somewhat maintained forest/ garden areas. Some modern replica old town buildings. A unique and original large exterior brick building (but highly updated with minimal to no original interior). Some nice children play areas. A decent sized informational display in the visitor center (with minimal original artifacts). Free timed tours. On the weekend when we were there, they even had a native plant sale and period costume attired craft people doing things like carpentry and spinning in the replica buildings. All these things may not have been exactly to the historical quality I was hoping, but they were doing SO much here, I felt like the $10 was very reasonable. Yes, it is annoying that you can enter the only original building on a tour at only 2 times per day, especially once you go in and realize most of the interior is replica since it was used by the local county for 130+ years (most its life) as government housing for the poor....and has standard drywall ceilings, electricity, smoke detectors, etc. The building is still an amazing landmark due to the construction but what real harm anyone could do inside really escapes me. The garden is very pretty and well maintained, but of the few markers they had to indicate what the plantings were, they had taped over (I assume because the plant on the marker died or was dormant or moved). So the informational aspect of the garden is a little lacking. The whole place is just interesting because this is a tiny town (300 people) that lasted less than 100 years and faded away of natural change with just the brick building really remaining. All the staff were very enthusiastic and friendly. Overall it is worth a 2-4 hour visit depending on if you have kids, how many tours you want to take, and if you are a fast/slow garden stroller (about...

Historic London Towne & Gardens is a hidden gem!

We stumbled upon Historic London Town & Gardens online during COVID but we didn’t get a chance to visit there until today. It’s just south of Annapolis & well worth the time to visit. The Warren Brown house, which is the only remaining original structure on the property from the early 1700s, is well maintained & filled with history. The gardens are beautiful & include a huge variety of plants & trees (including a willow oak that is 200+ years old & its “offspring” that is a mere 180 years old).

Since we were the only guests on the tour of the gardens & buildings, we had the privilege of having the tour guides (Italia & Jen) all to ourselves so they took their time to explain everything that was even remotely interesting to us. Italia even said that our small group size meant she could explain some things that she couldn’t do with a larger group. Italia & Jen received top scores from all 3 of us! Well done, ladies!👏👏

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit & highly recommend it to anyone in the area who is interested in the history of Maryland. As an added bonus, you can’t beat the prices. Since the Wife & I are both “seasoned citizens” & AAA members, our tickets were only $9 each & our son’s was $11 so our total cost was only $29 for...