St Paul's Church stands on Bedford Street in Covent Garden, London. Inigo Jones designed it for Francis Russell, the 4th Earl of Bedford, as part of the Covent Garden Piazza. It was built from 1631 to 1633, consecrated in 1638 and made a separate parish in 1646. It is considered the first entirely new church built in London since the Reformation.
The design is based on Vitruvius's description of an Etruscan-style temple, in a strict Tuscan order. The portico on the east end faces the piazza, but it is not the main entrance, which is on the plainer west front. The walls are brick with stone details, and the interior is a single undivided space.
Thomas Hardwick restored it in 1789. A fire burned it out in 1795, and it was reconsecrated in 1798. A pulpit by Grinling Gibbons survived the fire. The church has been associated with the theatre community since the 1660s.
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