Old St Andrew's Church

Old St Andrew’s Church stands in Kingsbury, a quiet corner of the London Borough of Brent. Built of flint rubble with Roman bricks worked into its walls, it is the oldest standing building in Brent. The church began as a simple nave and chancel in the 12th or 13th century, though an earlier Saxon church once occupied the site. By the 14th century it had two patrons, Saint Andrew and Saint John the Baptist, and later served as a chapel for the hospital of St John of Jerusalem. After falling into disrepair in the 18th century it was restored twice in the 19th and once in the mid-20th century. In 1977 it was declared redundant and later placed in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is worth visiting for its long history and the relics it holds. The font, probably from the 13th century, still stands in the nave, and a 17th-century oak lectern was once used by W. E. Gladstone. Three medieval bells hang in the turret, the oldest dating from about 1350. Three brasses commemorate local people, the earliest from 1520, while the churchyard contains Grade II-listed tombs including that of the American painter Edwin Austin Abbey, who died in 1911. In 2012 the Romanian Orthodox Church received a twenty-year lease, making the building a living place of worship once more. Inside, the single-cell plan shows plain flint walls and a modernised roof. The lectern and brasses remain in place, and visitors can see the 13th-century font set on a new pedestal. Outside, the churchyard shelters six listed monuments, four of them tombstones and two larger memorials. The flint tower at the west end carries a small spire, marking the church’s modest skyline. The building’s quiet setting and its layers of history make it a modest but memorable stop in Brent.