[1][3] Kitto was ordained in 1862 by the Bishop of London, Archibald Campbell Tait, and served as Curate of St. Pancras under William Weldon Champneys from 1862 to 1866.

[6] Due to the outbreak of cholera and the mass closing of industrial workplaces such as shipbuilding yards, ironworks, and factories, many inhabitants of the East End were facing increased pressure for work, with poverty and starvation rising.

William Milford Teulon served as architect, while the firm Crabb & Vaughan carried out the chief duty of providing new pews.

This period of restoration included a new chancel, porch, and turret, removal of the north and south galleries, marbling columns, a hot water heating system, lighting, ventilation in the ceiling, a pulpit, a Neo-Norman style font and a new organ provided by manufacturer William Hill & Son.

[8] A second restoration period occurred in 1870–1872, led by Teulon's junior partner Edwyn Evans Cronk and carried out by J. Kemp Coleman, a Poplar-native builder who had previously served as a churchwarden.

Cronk and Coleman oversaw the restoration, with a stained-glass crucifixion with scenes from the Passion and the Four Evangelists (designed by Lavers and Barraud) being added to the east window and the chancery being completed.

[3] In 1875, Kitto was presented by Bishop Jackson to the rectory of Whitechapel, where he was to oversee the rebuilding of the parish church (St. Mary Matfelon) with funds donated by Octavius Coope.

[10] While in Whitechapel, Kitto established an expansive network of charitable organizations including the 'Invalids and Sick Children's Dinner Fund' which provided about three-thousand meals annually, a convalescent home, a burial programme for the poor, a home for training young women as domestic servants, and a playground for poor children in the parish.

[1] Prior to the fire at St. Mary Matfelon, Kitto was appointed by Walsham How to the Rectory of Stepney, the mother parish of the entire East London.

[12] In 1885–1886, Kitto oversaw the restoration of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, where the interior was cleaned and painted and the east window, pulpit, and extra seating were added.

[18] In 1892, alongside Louisa Magenis (the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Belmore) and with patronage from Prince Christian, Kitto opened and managed the Rehearsal Club, which provided a place for theatre personnel to rest, read, eat, drink, and socialize safely and at a modest price from eleven at night to eight in the morning, the "dead hours" between performance times.