The chapel was originally a moveable timber structure on wheels, placed on Hounslow Heath so that James II could celebrate mass there.
[1][2] Thomas Tenison, at that time the rector of St Martin-in-the-Fields, later Archbishop of Canterbury, urged that it should be an Anglican chapel of ease for his parish, and it was opened for service in July 1691.
Since the site was not freehold, a district could not be assigned to it and it remained a chapel of ease; subsequently St George's, Hanover Square was built nearby.
The chapel was later acquired by James Robson, High Bailiff of Westminster, who rebuilt it in brick.
Dr. Beamish made it by his fervid and eloquent discourses, if not so fashionable, at all events so crowded, that it was impossible to accommodate the congregations which he drew together, without the erection of galleries.