The church was Street's first commission in London, which he took on after his widely admired work in the diocese of Oxford and at All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, where he delivered buildings in polychromatic red brick and stone.
He had also published in 1855, to considerable acclaim, his book Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy.
In 1858, he was commissioned by the three daughters of the Bishop of Gloucester (James Henry Monk) to construct a church in their father's memory in what was, at the time, an area of slums and run-down tenements in a very poor part of London.
The parish was inhabited by around 31,000 people at the time.
The church, which stands on land formerly owned by Westminster Abbey, was consecrated in 1861.
Street also built a parish school next to the church in 1861–64, in similar style, while his son Arthur Edmund Street revisited his father's designs in 1890 to add an infants' school (now a parish hall) attached to the west end of the church.

The church originally favoured the high church, Anglo-Catholic style of worship but over the decades became more of a broad church.
By the time of its centenary, however, it faced closure due to dwindling numbers of worshippers.
A campaign was mounted by Sir John Betjeman and others which resulted in the church gaining a reprieve.
It was eventually united with the nearby church of St Saviour's, Pimlico.
In the 21st Century, it falls within the Charismatic Evangelical tradition.

St James the Less is now embedded in the centre of the Lillington Gardens estate, which was built around the church in three phases between 1964–72.
The estate replaced a 12-acre (4.9 ha) area of dilapidated stucco-fronted houses with a dense low-rise series of residential buildings, constructed with dark red brick cladding interspersed with concrete bands.
The designers, Darbourne & Darke, set out specifically to complement the church and to avoid the use of precast concrete cladding, contemporary at the time, because they felt that it did not weather well in the British climate.
The results were praised by the architectural critic Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, who wrote that the designers had chosen to ensure that "the architectural style of 1960 [is] proclaiming its appreciation of the style of 1860", which he considered "very gratifying to us committed Victorians."
He declared the design of the estate to be "admirable in itself and admirable for its understanding of High Victorian values."
The church was Street's first commission in London, which he took on after his widely admired work in the diocese of Oxford and at All Saints, Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, where he delivered buildings in polychromatic red brick and stone. He had also published in 1855, to considerable acclaim, his book Brick and Marble Architecture in Italy. In 1858, he was commissioned by the three daughters of the Bishop of Gloucester (James Henry Monk) to construct a church in their father's memory in what was, at the time, an area of slums and run-down tenements in a very poor part of London. The parish was inhabited by around 31,000 people at the time. The church, which stands on land formerly owned by Westminster Abbey, was consecrated in 1861. Street also built a parish school next to the church in 1861–64, in similar style, while his son Arthur Edmund Street revisited his father's designs in 1890 to add an infants' school (now a parish hall) attached to the west end of the church.
The church originally favoured the high church, Anglo-Catholic style of worship but over the decades became more of a broad church. By the time of its centenary, however, it faced closure due to dwindling numbers of worshippers. A campaign was mounted by Sir John Betjeman and others which resulted in the church gaining a reprieve. It was eventually united with the nearby church of St Saviour's, Pimlico. In the 21st Century, it falls within the Charismatic Evangelical tradition.
St James the Less is now embedded in the centre of the Lillington Gardens estate, which was built around the church in three phases between 1964–72. The estate replaced a 12-acre (4.9 ha) area of dilapidated stucco-fronted houses with a dense low-rise series of residential buildings, constructed with dark red brick cladding interspersed with concrete bands. The designers, Darbourne & Darke, set out specifically to complement the church and to avoid the use of precast concrete cladding, contemporary at the time, because they felt that it did not weather well in the British climate. The results were praised by the architectural critic Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, who wrote that the designers had chosen to ensure that "the architectural style of 1960 [is] proclaiming its appreciation of the style of 1860", which he considered "very gratifying to us committed Victorians." He declared the design of the estate to be "admirable in itself and admirable for its understanding of High Victorian values."
St James the Less, Pimlico