[4] During the reign of King John (1199–1216) it served as the royal treasury, supported by the role of the Knights Templar as proto-international bankers.

In the mid-12th century, before the construction of the church, the Knights Templar in London had met at a site in High Holborn in a structure originally established by Hugues de Payens (the site had been historically the location of a Roman temple in Londinium,[citation needed] now known as London).

After the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 by the Crusaders, the Dome of the Rock was given to the Augustinians, who turned it into a church (while the Jami Al-Aqsa became a royal palace).

The Templum Domini, as they called the Dome of the Rock, featured on the official seals of the order's Grand Masters (such as Everard des Barres and Renaud de Vichiers), and along with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre upon which it was based soon became the architectural model for Round Templar churches across Europe.

The round church is 55 feet (17 m) in diameter, and contains within it a circle of the earliest known surviving free-standing Purbeck Marble columns.

The Knights Templar order was very powerful in England, with the Master of the Temple sitting in parliament as primus baro (the first baron in precedence of the realm).

The Temple also served as an early safety-deposit bank, sometimes in defiance of the Crown's attempts to seize the funds of nobles who had entrusted their wealth there.

After the destruction and abolition of the Knights Templar in 1307, King Edward II took control of the church as a Crown possession.

In the 1580s the church was the scene of the Battle of the Pulpits, a theological conflict between the Puritans and supporters of the Elizabethan Compromise.

Nevertheless, it was refurbished by Christopher Wren, who made extensive modifications to the interior, including the addition of an altar screen and the installation of the church's first organ.

The organ and all the wooden parts of the church, including the Victorian renovations, were destroyed and the Purbeck marble columns in the chancel cracked due to the intense heat.

The details of initiation ceremonies were always a closely guarded secret, which later contributed to the order's downfall as gossip and rumours spread about possible blasphemous usages.

The Temple Church has always been a royal peculiar,[13] due to which the choristers have the privilege of wearing scarlet cassocks.

Relations with the Bishop of London are very good and she regularly attends events and services at the Temple Church.

A choir in the English cathedral tradition was established at the Temple Church in 1842 under the direction of Dr E. J. Hopkins, and it soon earned a high reputation.

[14] In 1927, the Temple Choir under George Thalben-Ball became world-famous with its recording of Mendelssohn's Hear My Prayer, including the solo "O for the Wings of a Dove" sung by Ernest Lough.

The Temple Church's excellent acoustics have also attracted secular musicians: Sir John Barbirolli recorded a famous performance of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams there in 1962 (at the suggestion of Bernard Herrmann), and Paul Tortelier made his recording of the complete Bach Cello Suites there in April 1982.

The choir continues to record, broadcast and perform, in addition to its regular services at the Temple Church.

The boys' choir also appears on the 2016 recording of John Rutter's violin concerto Visions, and on an album of upper-voices Christmas music released the same year.