The suburb was founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to be a model community where all classes of people could live together in attractive surroundings and social harmony.

Simon Jenkins calls it "the confident application of Queen Anne Revival to traditional church form".

The west window (dedicated 1937) is to the design of Starmer and depicts Saint Jude holding the cross in his right hand and this church in his left.

On the north side of the west door is a memorial (a brass plaque) to the horses killed in the First World War.

The memorials on the north wall are to John Raphael, a popular sportsman killed in the First World War; to Father Maxwell Rennie, a bust by his daughter Rosemary Proctor; and, in the lunette above St George's altar, a painting by Starmer represents the last few moments in the life of Michael Rennie, the Vicar's son, who died of exhaustion after rescuing several evacuee children after their ship, the SS City of Benares, had been torpedoed on its way to Canada in 1940.

The fine iron screens that flank the sanctuary are much older than the church and bear the name Matthias Heit and the date 1710.

The high altar includes two stones from Canada: a smaller dark one from the former French royal chapel of Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia (where the first European settlement north of Florida was established in 1605, and where the first regular Church of England services were held in Canada in 1710), and a larger and lighter coloured one from the altar steps of Montreal Cathedral.

The foundation stone on the north side of the chancel was laid on St Mark's Day 1910 and is by Eric Gill.

To the left of the chancel is the Lady Chapel, the oldest part of the church, completed and opened for worship in 1910.

In the sanctuary is a wooden statue of Our Lady, a reproduction of the early sixteenth century Mourning Virgin or "Nuremberg Madonna" which would originally have been part of a crucifixion scene.

In the central panel is a picture by Maurice Greiffenhagen (a friend and colleague of Anning Bell at the Glasgow School of Art, and a fellow Royal Academician) of St John holding a chalice from which is emerging a serpent.

This refers to the legend in which the priest of the temple of Diana gave St John poison to drink as a test of faith.

As of 2022[update] St Jude's is on Historic England's 'Heritage at Risk' register, with its condition assessed as "poor".

Signature in the St Jude's Register for April 1945 St Jude's has been described as: "a building of true originality" and a "key work" of its period (Roslin Mair, Key Dates in Art History, 1979) Lutyens' "ecclesiastical masterpiece" and "one of the best twentieth-century church exteriors in England" (Simon Jenkins, The Companion Guide to Outer London, 1981).

The tunnel like domed interior contains a wonderful collection of gay furnishings, the wilful naughtiness of which was quite in keeping with the emancipated outlook of the people who lived in the hand-made red brick houses designed by Raymond Unwin, Baillie Scott, .

The central tower [rises] above the crossing to be surmounted by a Byzantine spire – majestic, imperious, Elgarian.

Again the overall style is Byzantine, but it is a modern, western interpretation of Byzantium" (John Leonard, London's Parish Churches, 1997).

The organ was rededicated in October 2002 following extensive rebuilding and renovation works, including the commissioning of a new console.

Evan Parker's live solo soprano saxophone album Six of One was recorded at the church on June 18, 1980.

A Feather on the Breath of God, an album of sacred vocal music by Hildegard of Bingen, performed by Gothic Voices with soloist Emma Kirkby, was recorded in September 1981.