[1] The church is mentioned in the line "'When I grow rich', say the bells of Shoreditch" from the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons.

[4] Several members of the theatrical profession from the Elizabethan period are buried in the church, including: These, with others of their profession from the period, are commemorated by a large classical memorial erected by the London Shakespeare League in 1913, inside the church, which serves as a reminder of Shoreditch's Shakespearian heritage.

The Shoreditch Vestry levied a special poor rate in 1774 for the purpose of setting up a workhouse for the parish of St Leonard's, which highlights the level of poverty in the area.

[4] Following a partial collapse of the tower in 1716, the medieval church was rebuilt in Palladian style by George Dance the Elder during 1736–40,[2] with a soaring steeple 192 feet tall—an imitation of Christopher Wren's magnificent steeple on St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside[2]—and a giant four-columned, pedimented Tuscan portico.

Many original 18th-century fixtures and fittings remain, including the font, the pulpit, the communion table, clock, organ case, bread cupboards and commandment boards.

John George Appold, FRS (1800–65), a pioneer of the centrifugal pump, is commemorated with a stone tablet inside the church.

Thomas Fairchild (1667–1724), a pioneer gardener and the author of The City Gardener, endowed an annual Whitsun sermon at the church on either The Wonderful World of God in the Creation or On the Certainty of the Resurrection of the Dead proved by Certain Change of the Animal and Vegetable Parts of the Creation.