St. Michael Cornhill

Although rebuilt after the Great Fire, it is unlikely that Wren had much involvement. The 17th century interior was anyway greatly altered during the 19th century. The individually-carved pew benches are particularly noteworthy.

The Romans built their city of Londinium on two hills, what became known as Ludgate Hill, the other Cornhill. Yet, in the modern, built-up city you’d hardly notice the higher elevation of Cornhill. St. Michael Cornhill church was built on the site of the Roman basilica.

It is one of two churches on Cornhill, the other being St. Peter upon Cornhill. They stand almost back-to-back, just a few doors along the same block on the street of Cornhill. They therefore provide a surviving example of the close proximity of the City’s parish churches prior to the destruction of many in the Great Fire of 1666. Another point that harks back to medieval times in both cases is how each is hidden from view by surrounding and abutting buildings. Surrounding St. Michael’s to the south and west is a labyrinth of historic alleyways that give a sense of the old medieval city.

St. Michael’s was one of seven City churches that was dedicated to the Archangel Michael, but only this and St. Michael Peternoster Royal survive. It is built on Saxon foundations, although the first record was at the end of that period in 1055 when it was given to the Abbot and Convent of Evesham. In 1133 it was granted to the priest Sparling for an annual rent, and provided the abbott could lodge there whenever he came to London. In 1503, during the reign of Henry VII the patronage was given to the Drapers’ company.

Family members of Tudor-era historian John Stow, including his father, were buried in the church, so he expounded on St. Michael’s more than other churches in the City. He complained that:

This hath been a fair and beautiful church, but of late years, since the surrender of their lands to Edward VI., greatly blemished by the building of lower tenements on the north side thereof towards the high street [Cornhill], in place of the green churchyard, whereby the church is darkened, and other ways annoyed.

During the Middle Ages the church had numerous benefactors, some of whom founded chantries. Says Stow:

The fair new steeple, or bell tower of this church, was begun to be built in the year 1421, which being finished, and a fair ring of five bells therein placed, a sixth bell was added and given by John Whitwell, Isabel his wife, and William Rus, alderman, and goldsmith, about the year 1430, which bell, named Rus, nightly at eight of the clock [for the curfew], and otherwise for knells, and in peels, rung by one man, for the space of one hundred and sixty years, of late overhauled by four or five at once, hath been thrice broken, and new cast within the space of ten years, to the charges of that parish more than one hundred marks.

The bells are still rung on special occasions. The tower had been rebuilt with three stages, the upper one battlemented, with four turrets and a large central spire. Stow continues:

The parish church hath on the south side thereof a proper cloister, and a fair churchyard, with a pulpit cross, not much unlike to that in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Sir John Rudstone, mayor, caused the same pulpit cross in his lifetime to be built, the churchyard to be enlarged by ground purchased of the next parish, and also proper houses to be raised for lodging of choir men, such as at that time were assistants to divine service, then daily sung by note in that church.

The medieval St. Michael’s was destroyed in the Great Fire, other than the tower. It is not clear whether the church was rebuilt in classical style by Wren or organised separately by the parishioners, who dealt directly with the mason, Nicholas Young. The entrance is through the tower. On the south wall, facing onto the churchyard garden, are round-headed windows. The font is from 1672 and the organ is from 1684 by Renatus Harris.

In the early 18^th century the tower was found to be unsafe. Wren rebuilt the lower part between 1715 and 1717, but the money was exhausted to be able to continue. A grant was later provided from the ‘Fifty New Churches Act’ and the tower was completed between 1718 and 1722, rising to 130 feet and with angle turrets and pinnacles, perhaps from a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor or William Dickenson. The upper and lower sections are therefore of different styles. Wren’s windows were altered in 1790 and there is an 18^th century sword-rest. Inside the door is a large wooden pelican in piety from 1775 by John Glazely.

There was further rebuilding work in the mid-19^th century by Sir George Gilbert Scott, replacing the 17^th century furnishings and with a new entrance, giving St. Michael’s more of a Victorian Italian style than that of its previous 17^th century decoration. Scott rebuilt the entrance with an elaborately carved porch in a Franco-Gothic style, featuring a sculpture by John Birnie Philip of ‘St. Michael Disputing with Satan about the Body of Moses’. The body of the church is divided by Tuscan columns and arches, and blue ceiling. Stained glass replaced Wren’s clear glass windows. The reredos is in pink marble. William Gibbs Rogers, who had provided wonderful carvings at St. Mary at Hill, here contributed the lectern and pulpit. Of particular note are splendid bench ends, including the Royal Pew and Corporation of London Pew.

Further decoration was undertaken during the 1950s and ‘60s. A new ring of 12 bells was installed in 2011. The churchyard has been transformed into a garden that is popular with City workers. (Standing beside it in St. Michael’s Alley is the historic Jamaica Wine House, a former 17^th century coffee house). St. Michael’s continues as a parish church. The parishes of St. Benet Fink (demolished 1844) and St. Peter le Poer (demolished 1907) have been amalgamated into that of St. Michael.