The church was originally built in the twelfth century and dedicated to St Lawrence; the weathervane of the present church is in the form of his instrument of martyrdom, the gridiron. The church is near the former medieval Jewish ghetto centred on the street named Old Jewry.

Destroyed in the Great Fire, the medieval church was built anew by Christopher Wren between 1670 and 1677.

The church suffered extensive damage during the Blitz on 29^th December 1940. After the war, the City of London Corporation agreed to restore it as Balliol College lacked funds to do so. The restoration, by the architect Cecil Brown to Wren’s original design, was completed in 1957. It is now a guild church which does not have its own parish and is not responsible to the parish authorities in its locality; it does not have to hold Sunday services.