The church is surrounded by a churchyard of nearly seven acres (28,000 m²). In 1658 William Greenhill was appointed vicar whilst retaining his position as a preacher at Stepney Meeting House. He held this post for about seven years, till he was ejected immediately after the Restoration in 1660.
Shortly after this, the churchyard was enlarged to cope with the massive number of deaths during the Great Plague of London. In one eighteen-month period 6,583 died, with 154 being buried in one day in September 1665.
The church has a long, traditional link with the sea and many sailors were buried here. It was once known as the 'Church of the High Seas'. The graveyard is also where Roger Crab, the 17th-century hermit who lived on a diet solely of herbs, roots, leaves, grass and water, is buried.
Parish church. Kentish ragstone, rubble and flint, with stone dressings and tiled roof An ancient foundation rebuilt C10; C13 chancel with seven-bay C15 nave and aisles, with battlemented parapets, two-light clerestorey windows and renewed three-light windows. C15 west tower, three stages with battlements, pinnacles and angle buttresses. Beacon tower on south side. North and south porches and hexagonal vestry room at north-cast corner added 1871-72 by Newman and Billing.
Interior: nave north and south aisles rebuilt cl500, when chancel arch-removed. Seven-bay arcades of two-centred arches on quatrefoil piers. C13 sedilia in chancel. Vestry room has open timber roof.
Alterations: extensively restored in 1849 by Benjamin Ferrey; in 1872 by Newman and Billing; by Cutts and Cutts in 1899 and again in 1901-2 following a fire, when the nave roof was rebuilt; in 1949 by C Wontner Smith, following war damage, when the flooring was renewed and the cast end reordered.
Fittings: Anglo-Saxon stone relief panel of the Crucifixion, early C11. Relief of the Annunciation, c1400, over north chancel door. Numerous funerary monuments, C16-C19, including recessed tomb chest to Sir Henry Colet, d.1510, in chancel; Dr John Berry, d1689, bust with in aedicule in north aisle; Benjamin Kenton, d.1800, by Westmacott showing relief of the Good Samaritan between Doric columns, in chancel. East window by Hugh Easton, 1949, depicting the Crucifixion above tableau of blitzed Stepney. Sailors' memorial window, also by Easton in north aisle. Organ by Father Willis, from St. Augustine's, Haggerston, installed in north-west aisle, 1971. Clock retains original working by Thwaites, 1804. Stone, reputedly from Carthage, set into south aisle wall with 1663 inscription.