[1] The current church was built on land donated by Sultan Abdulmecid and was constructed between 1858 and 1868 in memory of British soldiers who had died in the Crimean War.

[2] However, in-fighting on the approval committee, coupled with concerns regarding the supposed "un-English" style of Burges' design, led to his being removed as architect in 1863 and his replacement by George Edmund Street.

Much of the work to restore the building was carried out by a group of Sri Lankan refugees who fled to Istanbul at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Its facade is decorated with colourful modern takes on Biblical stories by the artist, Erica Beard.

Between 1995 and 2005 the Scottish artist Mungo McCosh adorned it with images of saints and others set against a backdrop of the İstanbul skyline.