Built to the designs of James Pennethorne, it was consecrated as an Anglican place of worship called Christ Church in 1837.

[1] It is rectangular in plan, and built of brick with stucco and stone dressings, its four corners emphasised by wide tower-like features, projecting slightly beyond the main lines of the walls.

[2] Its first incumbent, William Dodsworth, previously of the Margaret Street Chapel, resigned on his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

[2][5] Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti produced a stained-glass window depicting the Sermon on the Mount for the church (a second version is elsewhere).

On 26 January 1950 the funeral service of George Orwell, was held at the church, as it was near to both Middlesex Hospital where he died and BBC Broadcasting House, where he worked.