The church is of medieval origin, although the present building, with an octagonal nave, was constructed in the 1830s to the designs of John Shaw.

William Tyndale, the celebrated translator of the Bible, was a lecturer at the church; the poet John Donne was at one time vicar, and delivered sermons.

[4] Later repairs were carried out in an Italianate style: rusticated stonework was used, and some of the Gothic windows were replaced with round-headed ones, resulting in what George Godwin called "a most heterogeneous appearance".

An Act of Parliament was obtained in July 1829 which authorised the demolition of the church, and trustees were appointed to carry it into effect.

The eighth side opens into a short corridor, leading beneath the organ to the lowest stage of the tower, which serves as an entrance porch.

The communion rail is a survivor of the old church, having been carved by Grinling Gibbons during the period when John Donne served as vicar (1624–1631).

[7] Apart from losing its stained glass, the church survived the London Blitz largely intact, though bombs did damage the open-work lantern tower.

[11] On the façade is a chiming clock, with figures of giants, perhaps representing Gog and Magog, who strike the bells with their clubs.

There are numerous literary references to the clock, including in Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield; Nicholas Nickleby, Master Humphrey's Clock and Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, The Warden by Anthony Trollope, the penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls (in which the character Sweeney Todd first appears), David Lyddal's "The Prompter" (1810),[12] and a poem by William Cowper.

In 1828, when the medieval church was demolished, the clock was removed by art collector Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford, to Winfield House, his mansion in Regent's Park, which became known as St Dunstan's.

[citation needed] The playwright Gwen John and her sister Winifred Jones worked alongside the suffragettes Millicent and Agnes Fawcett to pay for it to be repaired.

Close to the font, there is a bronze memorial plaque for Thomas Mudge (1715/16–1794), inventor of the lever escapement and watchmaker to George III.

[citation needed] This is most likely due to it being mentioned in the original penny dreadful The String of Pearls as the church bearing a crypt into which the remnants of Sweeney Todd's victims were unceremoniously dumped after they had been murdered and turned into meat pies.