The earliest mention of this church is about 1200. Although the double dedication to the oldest and youngest female saints is quite early, it was commonly called ‘St Anne In the Willows’. Stow says that in his time there was ‘no such void place for willows to grow, more than the churchyard, wherein do grow some high ash trees’.
The old building was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren between 1676 and 1687. It was bombed in December 1940 and left in a state of ruin until restored by Braddock & Martin-Smith in 1963–68. St Anne & St Agnes is nicely situated back from the street in a tree-shaded churchyard. The grounds include those of St John Zachary, which was once next door but was not rebuilt after the Great Fire. Restoration has exposed the original brick, an improvement over the stucco added in the nineteenth century.
The little building has a quaint bell turret with a weather vane topped by the letter ‘A’. The interior, modelled after the Nieuwe Kerk at Haarlem in the Netherlands, is a cross within a square. The building is leased to St John’s Evangelical Churches of London, a Lutheran body, and services are held in Estonian, Latvian and English. The Lutheran Church was first established in London to serve German workers who came to help rebuild the city after the Great Fire. Furnishings of the church are sparse, in keeping with the Lutheran tradition, and none of it is from the original St Anne & St Agnes. Except during services, the church is open only by special arrangement.