There was a church here so long ago as the time of the Saxons, when it was called the church of all Saints, _Ecclesia omnium Sanctorum_, and we read of the manor of Stepney under the reign of William the Conqueror, by the name of _Stibenhede_, or Stiben’s-heath; but it does not appear when the church changed its name by being dedicated to St. Dunstan, the name it at present bears. To this church belong both a rectory and vicarage; the former, which was a sinecure, was in the gift of the bishop of London, and the latter, in the gift of the rector, till Ridley, bishop of London, gave the manor of Stepney, and the advowson of the church to Edward VI. who, in his turn, granted them to Sir Thomas Wentworth, Lord Chamberlain of his houshold. But the advowson being afterwards purchased by the principal and scholars of King’s Hall and Brazen-Nose college in Oxford, they presented two persons to the rectory and vicarage by the name of the Portionists of Ratcliff and Spitalfields, till the year 1744, when the hamlet of Bethnal Green being separated from it, and made a new parish by act of parliament, Stepney became possessed by only one rector. As this is at present a rectory impropriate, the above principal and scholars receive the great tithes, and the incumbent the small, together with Easter offerings, garden pennies, and surplice fees, which are very considerable. _Newc. Repert. Eccles._ When the present church was erected is not recorded; the wall and battlements are built of brick and wrought stone, plastered over; and the roof is covered with lead. It is of a very considerable extent, for it is an hundred and four feet long, though it is no more than fifty-four broad; the height of the roof is thirty-five feet, and that of the tower, with its turret, ninety-two feet. The pillars, arches and windows, are of the modern Gothic, and the west porch, built in 1610, has no resemblance to the rest of the building, it being of the Tuscan order. The tower, which is plain and heavy, is supported at the corners by a kind of double buttresses; it is crowned with square plain battlements, without pinnacles, and with a small mean turret; and the same kind of battlements are carried round the body of the church. On the inside are three galleries and an organ, and the altar-piece is adorned with four Corinthian pilasters, with their entablature and a pediment; these have gilt capitals; with the arms of Queen Anne carved: but what is most singular is a stone on the east side of the portico, leading up to the gallery, on which is the following inscription. Of Carthage great I was a stone, O mortals read with pity! Time consumes all, it spareth none, Men, mountains, towns, nor city: Therefore O mortals! all bethink You where unto you must, Since now such stately buildings Lie buried in the dust.