Heritage: The Four Churches

By 1741, after serving the parish for over 300 years, the second church building had fallen into disrepair and was pulled down for rebuilding.

By the mid-18^th century, St Marylebone had developed into a small village surrounded by pastoral fields with the adjacent pleasure ground of Marylebone Gardens laid to the southeast. The third church building was built directly on the ground of its predecessor under the supervision of surveyor John Land and opened in April 1742.

This church building bore witness to the burial of architect James Gibbs in 1751, the baptism of Lord Byron in 1788, and the baptism of Horatia Nelson, Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton’s daughter in 1803.

However, these modest premises soon proved too small to adequately support and serve its rapidly developing parish, which had grown from 577 houses in 1739 to 6200 houses by 1795. Thus, a fourth parish church was planned and executed in the 19^th century.

After the building and consecration of the fourth parish church, the third church building remained standing until 1949. It continued to serve its parish as a small chapel-of-ease until the early 20^th century. In 1949, it was demolished after sustaining significant damage during the Second World War from bomb impact. Today, the former parish church site is a memorial garden which can still be visited on the Marylebone High Street.