The new parish church was established in the 16th century to serve the inhabitants of the precincts of the former Dominican monastery, following its dissolution under King Henry VIII.

The monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII,[5] and in 1550 the precinct was granted to Sir Thomas Cawarden, the Master of the Revels,[6] who largely demolished the buildings on the site.

[7] This building fell down in 1597, and the parishioners purchased an additional piece of ground to the west from Sir George Moore, and rebuilt the church on a larger scale.

[5] A warehouse was constructed beneath the new part of the church, at the cost of the parishioners, for the use of Sir Jerome Bowes, who held the land under lease.

[9] As a result, for many years at the end of the 16th century and in the early 17th, the parish of St Ann's was the home of an unusually large number of talented artists who would otherwise have been regulated by the Painter-Stainers Company.