In about AD 952, Dunstan, the Bishop of London who was also Lord of the manor of Stepney replaced the existing wooden structure with a new church (probably including stone elements) dedicated to All the Saints. In 1029, when Dunstan was canonised, the church was rededicated to St Dunstan and All Saints, a dedication it has retained. Like many subsequent Bishops, Dunstan may have lived in the Manor of Stepney perhaps at the Bishops Wood residence.

Dunstan is likely to have had a very ’hands on’ approach to building the church. There are so many legends regarding Dunstan such as those relating to iron in folklore that some historic accounts are disregarded as ahistorical; such as those describing Dunstan physically moving a whole church so that it better aligns with the traditional East-West axis.

The church is known as "The Mother Church of the East End" as the parish covered most of what would become inner East London before population growth led to the creation of a large number of daughter parishes. This fission started in the fourteenth century or before. Some of the earliest other churches built in the parish were Whitechapel and Bow; the former became an independent parish at an early date while the latter was long a chapel of ease.

The existing building is the third on the site and was built of Kentish ragstone mainly in the fifteenth century. A porch and octagonal parish room were added in 1872 by Arthur Shean Newman and Arthur Billing. The church was restored extensively in 1899 by Cutts and Cutts at a cost of £5600. The vestries and some of the main building were destroyed by fire on 12 October 1901, including the organ which had carvings by Grinling Gibbons. The restoration (again by Cutts and Cutts) cost £7084 and the church was re-opened in June 1902 by the Bishop of Stepney (at that time Cosmo Gordon Lang). There was war-time damage which was restored by Cyril Wontner-Smith.


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