One Marylebone, formally Holy Trinity Church, was built in 1826-28 to the designs of Sir John Soane to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon.

In 1818 parliament passed an act setting aside one million pounds to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. This is one of the so-called “Waterloo churches” that were built with the money. Soane (1753 –1837) was arguably England’s finest architect in the Neo-Classical style.

Sir John Soane’s architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources.

His best-known work was the Bank of England, a building that had a widespread effect upon commercial architecture.

Photo: Blake Ezra from a Just Seventy Event

 By the 1930s, it had fallen into disuse and in 1936 was used by the newly founded Penguin Books Company to store books.

A children’s slide was used to deliver books from the street into the large crypt.

In 1937 they moved out to Harmondsworth, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), an Anglican missionary organization, moved in.

It was their headquarters until 2006, when they relocated to Tufton Street, Westminster (they have since moved again to Pimlico).

The church is currently used as an Events space operated by One Events and known as One Marylebone.

The venue now holds over 250 events a year ranging from weddings to corporate dinners, awards and press launches as well as exhibitions and charity events.

It stands on a traffic island to itself, bounded by Marylebone Road at the front, and Albany Street and Osnaburgh Street on either side; the street at the rear has no name.

Grade I listed by English Heritage, One Marylebone is one of only three London churches by Soane; it was the most expensive and now considered to be the most architecturally distinguished.

His influence of the Neo Classical is evident in the portico of the church and his constant desire to work with light is never more evident than it is in the first floor Galleries.

Apart from the loss of the original chancel, the basic structure of Soane’s church survives complete and is of huge national architectural and historical significance.

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