St Mark's Church, in its present form, dates from 1927, a distinguished, stuccoed building, which stands on the south side of the Cantonment area. The Cantonment was first established in 1809, when the British Garrison moved from Seringapatam, which had become too unhealthy. Winston Churchill on his arrival in India in the closing decade of the 19th century, commented on the arrangement of the Bangalore Cantonment, and the layout is virtually unchanged to this day.

Other Cantonment churches included Trinity Church to the East and St Andrew's (1864), the so-called 'The Scots' Kirk,' to the North. The Church of Scotland existed in India from 1813, when Ministers were permitted to establish churches - but only to preach to their Scots Presbyterian congregations. Today, a wide number of faiths are respected in Bangalore, with a Sikh Gurudwara, Jain Bastadis, a Parsi fire temple, St Xavier's Catholic Church, St Patrick's (Irish) Catholic church, in addition to mosques and Hindu temples.

Although certainly not the oldest church in Bangalore - St Mary's Basilica , rebuilt in 1833, dates back to the 17th century - St Mark's is of particular interest because it contains a memorial tablet to the Scotsman Lt.-Col Sir Walter Scott, 2nd Baronet, who died at sea in 1847. His namesake and uncle, Sir Walter Scott, is renowned as one of Scotland's greatest writers and antiquarians. Scott's Indian novels, - St Ronan's Well; The Surgeon's Daughter and Guy Mannering - have been somewhat neglected, until championed by the late Miss Margaret Tait. A redoubtable Scot, Miss Tait was born in Bangalore and in her later years, was a formidable presence in St Andrew's where she worked on Scott's Indian novels for the new Edinburgh University edition of his Works. Her broad ranging but minutely detailed research has introduced a colourful Indian dimension to our knowledge of the great Scottish writer, a subject that was further explored in the fascinating essay written by Iain Gordon Brown for 'The Tiger and the Thistle' exhibition catalogue.