THE CHURCH of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, designed by William Butterfield and consecrated in 1863, was a masterpiece of Victorian architecture. It had a nave of extraordinary grandeur, 87 feet in length, which soared above its squalid surroundings, while the alabaster-lined chancel provided a further 40 feet. All those who worshipped at St Alban's regarded it as the pro-cathedral of Anglo-Catholicism, but the original church was destined to last for only 78 years. On the night of 16 April 1941 it was destroyed by German fire-bombs.

When the war ended, many hoped that it might be possible to rebuild St Alban's exactly as it had been before, but insufficient funds were available, and eventually Adrian Gilbert Scott, brother of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was asked to produce a new, more economical design. From the outside, his church looks similar to its predecessor, for he was able to incorporate several features of the old building that had survived the fire more or less intact, including the massive saddleback tower, the east wall and the memorial chapel by the south entrance dedicated to the church's first vicar, Father Alexander Mackonochie. But the interior is a diff erent matter. Though dominated by a vast, gaudy mural of the Blessed Trinity by Hans Feibusch at the east end, it is otherwise coolly austere, with few of the elaborate architectural details and rich furnishings that made the Victorian St Alban's a place of wonderful mystery. Many old hands who attended the re-opening ceremony in 1961 could scarcely recognise where they were.

Until 1952, when it was united with the adjoining parish of the bombed St Peter’s, Saff ron Hill (and also acquired a chunk of St Andrew’s, Holborn), the parish of St Alban the Martyr was tiny. Measuring roughly 500 by 200 yards, it was bounded by Clerkenwell Road to the north, Leather Lane to the east, Holborn to the south, and Gray's Inn Road to the west. At the time the church was built no fewer than 8,000 people were crammed into this space.