It was built in 1792 to replace Hackney's medieval parish church, of which St Augustine's Tower remains, at the edge of its churchyard.

The church faces north towards Clapton Square, with the nearby Sutton House and Hackney Central station also accessible from the churchyard to the east and south, respectively.

As well as a thriving parish church, St John at Hackney has also become known as a notable music venue, playing host to the likes of Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande, Robbie Williams, Griff and Interpol.

[1] The building is Grade II* listed and contains monuments dating from the early sixteenth century, which were transferred from the medieval parish church.

It is possible that a chapel stood here serving the small, prosperous manor of Hackney north of the City of London, before the Norman Conquest.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries their lands passed to the Crown and were parcelled amongst Tudor nobles, including Thomas Sutton and Ralph Sadler.

The appointed architect, William Blackburn, firmly rejected the idea of building on the old site, advising that a budget of £15,000 be created to buy land on which to construct a new church.

Finally a compromise was reached; the bill became an act empowering the trustees to acquire, for £875, Church Field which lay to the north-east of the existing churchyard.

In the event the initial estimates of costs were significantly incorrect and two further acts had to be passed through Parliament to allow extra money to be raised.

In 1871 an appeal was launched to provide the tower with a four-faced clock, and this was duly installed by Gillet & Brand on New Year's Day in 1872.

During the ensuing major reconstruction work there was some reordering of the interior, including the insertion of a partition at the south end of the nave of the church to create the Hurdman Hall.

In 2018, St John at Hackney embarked on a multimillion-pound Restoration project, including a £1.84 million-pound grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

In 2019, the church opened new community facilities in the adjacent Hackney Gardens development to enable it to grow its outreach work and activity.