To give an idea of scale the steeple is said to be about 160 feet tall.
The church can trace its past back to 1101, when Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, founded a leper hospital here. The chapel probably became the church of a small village, which serviced the hospital, with the lepers screened off. In common with the other monasteries, the hospital was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539 and its lands sold. The hospital chapel became a parish church and the first Rector of St Giles was appointed in 1547. This was when the words "in-the-fields" were added to its name.
The current church was built in 1730-34 was designed by the architect Henry Flitcroft (Flitcroft went on to design Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Dukes of Bedford, one of the principal landowners in this part of London). The style of architecture is Palladian, based on the ideas of an Italian architect of the 16th century, Andrea Palladio and early Christian basilica. Sir Arthur Blomfield and Wiliam Butterfield made some alterations in 1875 and 1896. St Giles escaped the severe damage in the bombing in the Second World War, which merely removed most of the Victorian glass. The church underwent a major restoration in 1952-3 described by John Betjeman as
"One of the most successful post-war church restorations…"
'The Spectator' March 9th 1956.
The organ dates mainly from the 18th century. However much of the pipework from 1678 and 1699 was recycled during various re-building. It was extensively restored in 2006by WIlliam Drake.
The stained glass above the altar shows the Transfiguration (when the disciples saw the light of God shining from the human face of Christ).
The pulpit is from the West Street Chapel which was John and Charles Wesley's headquarters in the 18th century.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 24 October 1951
http://www.stgilesonline.org/index.php
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