The structure, as it now stands, is said to be the result of the combined genius of Messrs. Gutch and Goldicutt; and we are further told that this precious specimen of “Brummagem Gothic,” was originally designed for a Grecian building, but was altered to suit the “taste of the times.” Mr. Vulliamy, one of the gentlemen who had responded to the advertisement, felt his talent to be so scandalized by the acceptance of this clumsy design, that he printed a letter, which he addressed to the vestry; in which he points out that the successful candidate is very improperly, as he thinks, an influential member of that board. This gentleman, was the bishop’s surveyor, and the district-surveyor—two offices totally incompatible. But who could be supposed to know better the tastes and wants of the people of Paddington? So little did he know, however, that his second, or amended design, was found to be so obtrusively ugly that those who had adopted it could not see it carried out; and, although the original estimate for this design was fixed at £8,600, another thousand was readily added, in order that the deformity, which had been so unanimously fixed on, might be again amended! This church in all its present taste, the vestry agreed should become the parish church; but it was not till March, 1845, that the Reverend Chairman reported to the vestry that the Church Commissioners had executed the deed to transfer the rights, &c., from St. Mary’s to St. James’s. A distinct understanding was come to at this time that the old church should be enlarged. And “by these means,” says the report of 1840, “accommodation will be provided for four thousand persons, or including Bayswater chapel, which may hereafter be made a parochial chapel, for more than five thousand persons, in a parish supposed to contain twenty thousand souls.” The report goes on to state that each of the four districts, into which the parish will be divided, “will be placed under the immediate care of its respective minister or ministers; and these important results will have been obtained _without any compulsory levy on the parishioners_.”