Step back in time with a selection of historic photographs of the exterior of St Mary Magdalene’s, capturing how its surroundings have changed over the years yet the church itself endures as a presence in the community.

Before re-development in the 1960s, St Mary Magdalene’s Church in Paddington was tightly hemmed in by rows of Victorian terraces, particularly along Clarendon Street and Clarendon Crescent, whose back gardens backed directly onto the Grand Union Canal running behind the church. These houses and streets once formed a densely packed, working-class neighbourhood just steps from the church.

In 1957 the London County Council bought 206 properties from the borough council and 266 from the Church Commissioners in the streets surrounding the church. The demolitions, intentionally aimed at ‘slum’ clearance, affected 6,700 residents. By 1962 nearly all those terraced homes had been demolished and replaced by the newly built Warwick Estate – nearly 1,500 new homes – transforming the church’s surroundings into open, landscaped spaces beside the canal.

Some families moved into the new blocks. Many took the offer of more space outside London instead, and a great number went to Slough.

The church is the only thing in these photographs still standing where it was.

Tap a hotspot to bring up the historic photograph taken from where you’re standing.

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