St James the Less was built in 1858–61. A grade I listed building, it has been described as "one of the finest Gothic Revival churches anywhere". The church was constructed predominately in brick with embellishments from other types of stone. Its most prominent external feature is its free-standing Italian-style tower, while its interior incorporates design themes which Street observed in medieval Gothic buildings in continental Europe.

St James the Less is now embedded in the centre of the Lillington Gardens estate, which was built around the church in three phases between 1964–72. The estate replaced a 12-acre area of dilapidated stucco-fronted houses with a dense low-rise series of residential buildings, constructed with dark red brick cladding interspersed with concrete bands.

The designers, Darbourne & Darke, set out specifically to complement the church and to avoid the use of precast concrete cladding, contemporary at the time, because they felt that it did not weather well in the British climate. The results were praised by the architectural critic Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, who wrote that the designers had chosen to ensure that "the architectural style of 1960 is proclaiming its appreciation of the style of 1860".