St Mary's, Bryanston Square, is a Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Bryanston Square

Bryanston Square

Bryanston Square is a square in Marylebone, Westminster, London, England. Named after its owner Henry William Portman's home village of Bryanston in Dorset, it was built as part of the Portman Estate between 1810 and 1815, along with Montagu Square a little to the east and Wyndham Place to its...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, just a five minute walk from any of Marylebone, Baker Street or Edgware Road tube stations. It is also the name of a related Church of England primary school.

It was built as one of the Commissioners' church

Commissioners' church

A Commissioners' church is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Act of 1818 and 1824. They have been given a number of titles, including Commissioners' churches, Waterloo churches and Million Act churches...

es in 1823-4 and was designed by Robert Smirke

Robert Smirke (architect)

Sir Robert Smirke was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture his best known building in that style is the British Museum, though he also designed using other architectural styles...

 to seal the vista from the lower end of Bryanston Square. It is a brick building, with a stone portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 and tower and listed grade I. The church cost £19,955 (£ as of ), and the Church Building Commission gave a grant of £14,955 towards this.

Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington

Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington

Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington was an Irish earl best known for his marriage to Margaret Farmer, née Power, whom he married at St Mary's, Bryanston Square, London, on 16 February 1818...

 and Margaret Farmer

Marguerite, Countess of Blessington

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington was an Irish novelist.Born Margaret Power near Clonmel in County Tipperary, Ireland, she was a daughter of Edmund Power, a small landowner...

 married here on 16 February 1818. The church's rector c.1823–1847 was Thomas Frognall Dibdin

Thomas Frognall Dibdin

Thomas Frognall Dibdin , English bibliographer, born at Calcutta, was the son of Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of Charles Dibdin....

, and Samuel Augustus Barnett

Samuel Augustus Barnett

Samuel Augustus Barnett was an Anglican clergyman and social reformer particularly associated with the establishment of the first university settlement, Toynbee Hall in east London in 1884....

 was introduced to his future wife Henrietta during his curacy there 1867–8.