The first church for the parish was built in the vicinity of the present Marble Arch c. 1200, and dedicated to St John the Evangelist.

The bishop stipulated that the old churchyard should be preserved, but also gave permission to enclose a new burial ground at the new site,[1] The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

[2] It was in this church Francis Bacon was married in 1606, and its interior was portrayed by William Hogarth in the marriage scene from his famous series "A Rake's Progress" (1735).

Admiral Horatio Nelson was a worshipper here and his daughter Horatia was baptised here; Richard Brinsley Sheridan was married to Elizabeth Ann Linley here.

This is also the church in which the diplomat Sir William Hamilton married Emma Hart (Amy Lyon), later Nelson's lover.

[4] The crypt was the burial place of members of the Bentinck family, including William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (died 1809).

[5] Construction of a new church was first considered in 1770, with plans prepared by Sir William Chambers and leadership given by the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Portland (owners of much of the area, by now a wealthy residential area to the west of London that had outgrown the previous church), but the scheme was abandoned and the land donated for it in Paddington Street purchased for a burial ground.

Hardwick's church was basically rectangular in plan, with two small extensions behind the entrance front, and two wings placed diagonally flanking the far end (the liturgical east),[9] which originally housed private galleries equipped with chairs, tables and fireplaces.

[14] Composer Sir John Stainer wrote an oratorio specifically for the choir at St Marylebone; The Crucifixion was first performed in the church on 24 February 1887, which was the day after Ash Wednesday.

[15] In 1826, the transparency above the altar was removed, the organ case reduced in size and the private galleries replaced by new ones for pupils of the National School.

The new plans, by Thomas Harris (architect and churchwarden of the parish), removed the end wall and the upper galleries along the sides of the church (uncovering the windows' full length and letting in more light), created a chancel for a robed choir (with new carved mahogany choir stalls with angel ends) and a sanctuary within the new apse, and added a marble mosaic floor, a fine marble pulpit and two balustrades (with Alpha and Omega on the latter).

Funded by subscription, it began in 1884 (with a memorial stone, laid by Mrs Gladstone, wife of the Prime Minister, in the outside wall of the apse) and was completed a year later.

A bomb fell in the churchyard close by during the Second World War, blowing out all the windows, piercing the ceiling over the reredos in two places with pieces of iron railing from the school playground, and necessitating the church's closure for repairs until 1949, when fragments of the original coloured glass were incorporated into the new windows and a Browning Chapel created at the back of the church to commemorate the Brownings' marriage.

[24] Members of the Bentinck family, including Listed below are some of the burials in the churchyard, which no longer exists because it has been made into a public garden.

[26][27] Artists exhibited in the programme include Matthew Krishanu, Claudia Böse, Mary Webb, Susan Gunn, Nicholas Middleton, Simon Burton, Alex Hanna, Pen Dalton, Simon Carter, Judith Tucker, Susie Hamilton, Julie Umerle, Greg Rook, Stephen Newton, Alison Pilkington, Marguerite Horner, Paula MacArthur, Nathan Eastwood, Linda Ingham, James Quin, Wendy Saunders and Robert Priseman.