The church is believed to have been founded, or re-founded, in AD 952 by St Dunstan, the patron saint of bell ringers, metalworkers and Stepney.

In about AD 952, Dunstan, the Bishop of London — who was also Lord of the manor of Stepney — replaced the existing wooden structure with a new church (probably including stone elements) dedicated to All the Saints.

This is entirely plausible as 10th century churches were typically formed from a small lightweight timber frame that was placed in a pre-dug trench.

It is realistic that Dunstan, especially if aided by local builders, adjusted the alignment of the church structure within the trenches with his shoulder.

The existing building is the third on the site and was built of Kentish ragstone mainly in the fifteenth century (although the chancel dates from 200 years earlier).

The vestries and some of the main building were destroyed by fire on 12 October 1901, including the organ which had carvings by Grinling Gibbons.

Until its closure in 2017, the foundry was the last major survivor of an East End metalworking heritage going back to at least the 1300’s, and whose largest expression was the nearby Thames Ironworks at Blackwall and Canning Town.

It is an 1872 Father Willis instrument built for St Augustine's, Haggerston, and rebuilt by R. Spurden Rutt & Co in 1926.

[12] It replaced a 1903 Norman and Beard organ, which is now located at St Edmund the King, Northwood Hills.

The graveyard is also where Roger Crab, the 17th-century hermit who lived on a diet solely of herbs, roots, leaves, grass and water, is buried.