St Mary's, Bryanston Square, London

Robert Smirke's beautiful St Mary's was built in 1824 in the Greek Revival style, of which Smirke was a leading light. He had visited Greece as a young man and his designs were forever inspired by the country. So, lots of columns. Smirke was hugely successful and designed many public buildings including The British Museum.

St Mary's was built using money from the Church Building Act of 1818, which provided £1m to build more churches for The Church of England.

The Act was created to counteract several social issues of the time:

1. The Industrial Revolution had increased city populations and by then there weren't enough churches for everyone to attend on a Sunday in the cities
2. People were increasingly turning to the new independent churches like the Quakers, Baptists and Methodists instead of CofE
3. Following the French Revolution, the Government wanted the Church to play a greater role of social cohesion to help dampen down thoughts of revolution in England.