In the middle of the 19th Century, the Holborn Valley Improvement Scheme bought the North Churchyard from St Andrew’s to make way for the Holborn Viaduct, which was to link Holborn with Newgate on the other side.

Queen Victoria opened the viaduct in 1869. Because of this loss of land many of the bodies from the churchyard were interred in the Crypt, as well as in the City Cemetery in Ilford.

St Andrew’s engaged the Victorian Gothic architect Samuel Teulon to build a new vicarage and Court House on the South side of St Andrews. Into the Court Room, the feature room of the building Teulon incorporated a 17th Century fireplace from one of the two previous Questhouses; it still stands impressively in the room today.

Teulon’s building now operates as the offices for the Foundation, the associated Charities and the Archdeaconry of Hackney, as well as the Rectory and the Conference Rooms.

The church was used by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist- Bill Sykes looks up at St Andrew’s tower, and by Iris Murdoch in Under the Net, who copies Dickens- though from where her character stands it is almost impossible to see St Andrew’s.

John Stanley (1712-1786) was Organist here from the age of 14, and died nearby in Hatton Garden. He became a governor of the Foundling Hospital after Handel’s death and continued the tradition of performing the Messiah for the Hospital.