St Matthew's was built between 1849 and 1851 to the design of Sir George Gilbert Scott, assisted by his brother-in-law, George Frederick Bodley. Scott's son John Oldrid Scott designed the clergy house. Subsequently, Sir Ninian Comper added the Lady chapel (approached by the staircase in the Narthex). The interior was greatly enriched by the work of Bodley, Charles Kempe, Walter Ernest Tower and Martin Travers. Kempe and Comper studied under Bodley; Tower was Kempe's partner and Martin Travers was the pupil of Comper. At the time it was built the area was one of the poorer districts of the borough of Westminster.