The present church was built in 1817 and one of the first organists was Charles Wesley Jr (son of the famous hymnwriter; he lived from 1757 to 1834 – St Marylebone was his final appointment). Later on in the same century, Sir John Stainer wrote his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, for the choir of the church. Written in 1887, it has been performed every year since then. Stainer would have known a large choir of men and boys. Two world wars, however, changed the demography of this area considerably, and so in the 1970s it was decided to form a professional choir (initially a quintet to support the amateur choir, but subsequently augmented to ten singers when it replaced the amateur choir, at which size it has remained to this day). The Director of Music at this time was the distinguished musician Michael Howard. He was succeeded in 1980 by Catherine Ennis (having spent two years as his assistant), who oversaw the commissioning of the new Rieger organ in 1987.