St Andrew's was the Church of 'Anglo-Indian' Bedford. The term 'Anglo-Indian', as it was used at the end of the nineteenth century, described those who had served in India in the army, the police and the colonial service. Many of these families settled in North Bedford, purchasing or renting houses in the newly developed 'Saints Roads', to take advantage of the relatively inexpensive public school education. St Peter's, their parish church, proved too small to accommodate the growing population, and with their independence of spirit, the 'Anglo-Indians' resolved to open their own mission church. So St Andrew's was born, as a tin tabernacle, half-way up St Andrew's Road, dedicated in October 1895. The congregation at St Andrew's grew and the tin tabernacle was extended with a south aisle in 1897 and a north aisle in 1901. One of these aisles was subsequently purchased by a local School and may still be seen, painted blue, on Pemberley Avenue.
(see waypoint for location)
As the congregation grew in strength, it sought independent status, which eventually came in 1915, and the purchase of a new site for a permanent church, on the edge of the built-up area. The First World War delayed the laying of the foundation stone until 1921 and the nave was built in three stages, to be completed in 1930 as far as the chancel arch. The architect was George Pemberton Allen, son of W.H. Allen of the Queen's Engineering Works. Allen chose an Early English style, and built in Northamptonshire ironstone, roofed with Westmorland green slates. A war memorial chapel was planned, but eventually the large number of young men from the parish who had fallen in the Great War were commemorated in two tablets, originally behind the font and now in the north aisle.
The Church remained incomplete until 1963. The northward expansion of Bedford in Putnoe and Brickhill considerably increased the population of the parish and the Vicar and Parochial Church Council commissioned Cecil Brown, a notable scholar-architect, to complete the building. Brown chose a simpler architectural style, with plain, well-lit white walls and, following new liturgical developments, placed the westward-facing altar in the spacious sanctuary at the head of the nave, rather than in a chancel.Cecil Brown also designed the circular window of Christ in Majesty high in the east wall. The external tower was a part of the same development and houses eight bells, six of which came from the medieval church of St Mary's, south of the river, which had been declared redundant.
As its millennium project, the Parochial Church Council resolved to replace the Church Hall, built in 1965, with a new and dominant entrance foyer, linking the Church with a new hall and other facilities, including vestries and a Quiet Room. The architect was Bruce Deacon and the new Church Centre was opened in June 2004.
Taken from the church website history section