Parish of St Matthias, Earls Court , Church of England

The church of Saint Matthias was built between 1869 and 1872 to designs by J.H. Hakewill. The church schools - erected in 1878-1879 - survive. The church dates from the period when there was much church building in Kensington to keep pace with the estate development, regardless of proven need or of financial security. The parish derived from Saint Philip's, Earl's Court Road, which was 'High Church' from the time of its first incumbent the Reverend Joseph Claxton. The first vicar of Saint Matthias was the controversial Reverend Samuel Charles Haines. The doors were at the sides not at the west end because Haines wished to avoid 'the gathering of idle persons around the entrance from the main road and so securing greater quiet in services'. Haines was constantly summoned before the Bishop of London for 'Anglo-Catholic excesses'. Services at Saint Matthias under Haines's ministry were 'fashionably extreme and attracted wide attention'. There was also much dispute over parish boundaries.

During World War Two the church was without a vicar and temporarily administered from Saint Cuthbert's. The church was deemed to be too big for its diminished congregation and the parish was merged with Saint Cuthbert's; the building was razed in 1958.