In 1862, a simple, rectangular building with a nave, a chancel and a small vestry room was erected to serve this rather scattered, outlying village called New Hampton.

When it was finished the Rev. Fitzroy John Fitzwygram was appointed Vicar, and the building was consecrated on December 11th, 1863, by Bishop Tait, Bishop of London.

The Common, as our area was then called, was described as 'a miserable area inhabited by an even more miserable brand of people' and the little district chapelry of St. James as 'a barn of a church in a wilderness of a parish'.

The Rev. Fitzwygram and his wife devoted their lives and much of their fortune in improving the living conditions and prospects of the parishioners. Consequently, matters speedily improved and people started flocking to worship in the little church.

By 1872 the population of the parish had greatly increased. The church therefore needed to be enlarged and so during the next twenty years there were many alterations and extensions which changed the little barn into the elegant building we know today. The west porch and north aisle came first, the stained glass windows dedicated to well known parishioners, then an organ chamber and a splendid organ was given by the vicar. The vestry was added and in 1876 the chancel was enlarged and tiled and a beautiful stained glass window was installed above the altar. The south aisle and porch were the last of Rev, Fitzwygram’s additions as he died in 1881. The parable windows in the south aisle were added as a memorial to him.

The year 1887 being Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, it was proposed to commemorate the event by the building of the Tower and Spire, so completing the Church. In 1893 the clock and bells were installed. At that time, lighting was by gas and the heating by a coke-fired boiler, later converted to oil-firing and then to gas.
The lych gate (see left) formerly stood nearer St. James's Road but was moved to its present site in the early 1900s.

Originally the churchyard was just the area immediately surrounding the church. However, because of the growing population of the new parish this was found to be too small and in 1882 the vicar of Hampton gave an acre of land next to the church in Park Road to be used as the parish burial ground. The War Memorial was erected in 1920 and near it are the Canadian war graves, needed when the Canadian Military Hospital was situated in Bushy Park during the 1914-1918 war.

In September 1994, the new Church Hall was built and finally in October 2005 the Bishop of Kensington threw open the new west entrance doors and led the community into church for Parish Communion. The glass doors give a view of the whole length of the nave and the chancel and the ongoing life within.

Here too, is the Parish Office, to which anybody can come; to arrange baptisms, weddings, funerals, to hire the Hall, or just to view the church. This was our vision of opening ourselves for all to see, and join in with.