The church was built between 1716-31 at a cost of £31,000.

St George’s was consecrated on the 28th January 1730 by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London. At this time, Bloomsbury was part of the parish of St Giles in the Fields and was surrounded by one  of London’s most notorious slums, the Rookery. Hogarth’s Gin Lane (1751), with the spire of St George’s clearly visible towards the top of the picture, gives us an idea of the squalor and despair that characterised the area.

In 1913, St George’s was the setting for the memorial service for Emily Davison, the suffragette who threw herself under the King’s horse in the Derby. 

In 1937, St George’s held a special service of remembrance for those killed during the Abyssinian War which was attended by Haile Selassie.

The church was extensively restored 2002-06, including reinstatement of the lions and unicorns that had been replaced by carved knots of cloth in 1871.