Our church was built in the 1840’s, one of ten churches which were built in Bethnal Green in that era. Bishop James Blomfield had a vision that Bethnal Green should have a church named after each apostle in the Bible. That’s how we got our name.
In 1897 Revd John Edwin Watts-Ditchfield was appointed as Vicar. The church gained lots of new buildings and new members and he eventually became the first Bishop of Chelmsford.
In 1944 the church building suffered significant bomb damage and was closed, reopening in 1960. During the rebuilding the church community continued to worship God in the building which is now Gatehouse School.
St James the Less continues as a Church of England parish church. Simply put, we believe Jesus is ’the way, the truth and the life’. We know God’s great love, welcome and forgiveness and we desire our community to know and experience all that for themselves.