Moscow has many beautiful Orthodox churches, but few know about the existence of St. Andrew's Anglican Church. The history of the Anglican community in the capital begins with the era of Ivan the Terrible, who allowed British merchants to practice their faith.

A full-fledged church building was constructed between 1882 and 1884 on the site of an old wooden chapel. The funds for the construction were provided by the British community with the support of the English trading company. Architect Richard Freeman developed the project, and in January 1885, the church was consecrated in honor of St. Andrew.

The Anglican church in Moscow served not only as a place of worship but also as a community center for the British diaspora. It housed a library, a conference hall, and an archive, and at the top of the tower was a storeroom for valuable items belonging to community members.

The church building is designed in the Victorian style of English Gothic. It is a single-nave neo-Gothic basilica made of red brick with a square tower in the northwest. The total area of the premises is about 3,500 square meters. The tower is adorned with four pointed pinnacles with weather vanes.

The concise decoration of the nave emphasizes the impressive century-old oak beam and rafter ceiling, creating a medieval atmosphere. The walls are painted white, and the pointed window openings once featured stained glass, lost during the Soviet era. On the side walls, there are 14 small bas-reliefs depicting the Stations of the Cross of Jesus Christ.

After the 1917 revolution, the authorities seized many valuable items from the church's storage, along with 193,000 rubles. Over time, the building housed the diplomatic mission of Finland, a warehouse, and a dormitory.

In the 1960s, it became home to the Melodiya recording studio. The church's vaults provided excellent acoustics, and leading musicians of the USSR recorded here.

Worship services resumed in 1991, but the church was fully returned to the Anglican community only after Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Moscow in 1994.