Plymouth only had one parish church for many years,which was that of St.Andrew,but the town's population was steadily increasing and by 1634 it was considered that there were far too many inhabitants for one church to cope with so in that year,the local authorities petitioned King Charles I for permission to split St.Andrew's parish in two and construct a second parish church within the confines of the town's boundaries.It took until 1640 for an 'Act' to finally be passed giving permission for this seperation from the old parish and the King insisted that the new church be named after him rather than the convention of naming it after a Saint.
Work finally got under way in 1640 only to be brought to a halt by the intervention of the English Civil War.The church was eventually finished in 1658 but it was not consecrated until after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.The tower dates from about 1657 but early on,the church only had a wooden spire and the existing stone one wasn't erected until about 1767.
It's demise came about on the night of 21st March 1941 when it was gutted by fire after one of the heaviest air raids on Plymouth of WWII and it's somewhat ironic that a church that was erected during war should become a victim of war,albeit 300 years later.It remained in a derelict state until 1957 when the church authorities decided that the church wouldn't be rebuilt.The local council then bought the whole site from them and now,after some preservation work,the ruined church stands as a memorial to the civilian population of Plymouth who were killed in the air raids of WWII.
The graveyard that once took up about an acre of land around the church has now gone and the remains of those people buried there were removed and re-interred at Efford cemetery which lies in the northern outskirts of the present day city.The inscriptions on the stones that survived the air raids were transcribed at that time and a copy of these has been deposited in the Plumouth & SW Devon record office.