The church of St Michael, Cornhill is sited directly above the location of the western apse of the former London Roman basilica (built c. 90–120). Although its walls are not aligned with the basilica, some of the church's foundations still sit directly on top of the roman foundations.[4]
St Michael's Cornhill church (in orange, top left) and location above western end of London Roman Basilica
The first reference to the church was in 1055, when Alnod the priest gifted it to the Abbey of Evesham, "Alnod sacerdos dedit ecclesiam, beati Michaelis in Cornhulle, London".[5]
The patronage remained in the possession of the Abbot and convent of Evesham until 1503,[6] when it was settled on the Drapers' Company. A new tower was built in 1421, possibly after a fire. John Stow described the church as "fair and beautiful, but since the surrender of their lands to Edward VI, greatly blemished by the building of four tenements on the north side thereof, in the place of a green church-yard". On the south side of the church was a churchyard with what Stow calls a "proper cloister", with lodgings for choristers, and a pulpit cross, at which sermons were preached. These were maintained by Sir John Rudstone, after whose death in 1530 the choir was dissolved and the cross fell into decay.[7][8] Churchwardens' accounts and other memoranda of the medieval and Tudor church are in print,[9] and the parish registers from 1546 to 1754 are published by the Harleian Society.[10]
A folk tale, dating from the early 16th century, tells of a team of bellringers who once saw 'an ugly shapen sight' appear as they were ringing the bells during a storm. They fell unconscious, but later discovered scratch marks in the masonry. For years afterward these were pointed out as the 'Devil's clawmarks'.[11]
Rebuilding after the Great Fire
The interior from the entrance looking down the aisle
The medieval church, except for the tower, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666;[12] the present building was begun in 1672.[1] The design is traditionally attributed to Sir Christopher Wren.[1][13] However, the authors of the Buildings of England guide to the City churches believe Wren's office had no involvement with the rebuilding of the body of the church, the parish having dealt directly with the builders.[2] The new church was 83 feet long and 67 feet wide, divided into nave and aisles by Doric columns, with a groined ceiling. There was an organ at the west end, and a reredos with paintings of Moses and Aaron at the east. The walls, George Godwin noted, did not form right angles, indicating the re-use of the medieval foundations.[1]
The fifteenth-century tower, having proved unstable, was demolished in 1704 by order of the archbishop.[3] A replacement, 130 feet high, was completed in 1721. In contrast to the main body of the church it was built in a Gothic style, in imitation of that of Magdalen College, Oxford.[1] Construction had begun in 1715, with money from the coal fund.[13] The designer of the lower stages was probably William Dickinson, working in Christopher Wren's office.[2] Funds proved inadequate, and work stopped in 1717 with the tower half-completed. The tower was eventually completed in 1722[3] with the aid of a grant from the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, the upper stages being to the designs of its surveyor, Nicholas Hawksmoor.[13] The tower terminates in four elaborately panelled turrets, resembling those of King's College Chapel, Cambridge.[3]
Repairs were made to the church in 1751, 1775, and 1790, the last two of which were done under the survey of George Wyatt. In the 1790 repairs, the south aisle windows and the east window were made circular; as well, a new pulpit, desk, altar rail, east window glass, and 12 new brass branches were added.[3]
Victorian alterations
In the late 1850s, the Drapers' Company, motivated by legislation that would have forced them to hand certain funds over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners if they were not spent on St Michael's, decided to fund a lavish scheme of embellishment, and asked George Gilbert Scott to carry out the work.[14]
J. B. Philip's tympanum sculpture St Michael disputing with Satan
Scott demolished a house that had stood against the tower, replacing it with an elaborate porch, built in the "Franco-Italian Gothic" style (1858–1860), facing towards Cornhill.[3][15] It is decorated with carving by John Birnie Philip, including a high-relief tympanum sculpture depicting "St Michael disputing with Satan".[16] Scott inserted Gothic tracery into the circular clerestory windows, and into the plain round-headed windows on the south side of the church. New side windows were created in the chancel, and an elaborate stone reredos, incorporating the paintings of Moses and Aaron by Robert Streater[3] from its predecessor, was constructed in an Italian Gothic style. A contemporary account of the work explained that this was appropriate since "the classical feeling which pervades the Italian school of Gothic art enabled the architect to bring the classical features of the building into harmony with the Gothic treatment which our present sympathies demand".[14] The chancel walls were lined with panels of coloured marble, up to the level of the top of the reredos columns, and richly painted above this point.[14] It was said that Scott "proposes to brighten all the roof with colour... and he fuses the vaulting into something transitional between Pointed and Italian. And he inserts tracery in all the round-headed windows, and the great ugly stable-like circles of the clerestory become roses under his plastic hand."[3]
Stained glass by Clayton and Bell was installed, with a representation of Christ in Glory in the large circular east window. Its splays were enriched with inlaid and carved marble, with four heads in high relief enclosed in medallions. The other windows contained a series of stained glass images illustrating the life of Christ, with the crucifixion at the west end.[14]
The pews also date from this time, and are an impressive complete set of victorian church furnishings, with elaborately carved finials at the bench ends, each with a different design. They were exeuted by a certain Mr Rogers to the designs of Gilbert Scott, and represent a rare survival of a complete set of Gilbert-Scott church furnishings, his other great set at Bath Abbey being removed and dispersed in the latest renovations. They were descrived in The Building News in 1861 as being of "oak of beautiful colour and texture, effectively rendered by the veteran Rogers, who is one of the most successful imitators of the renowned Grinling Gibbons.[17] Gilbert Scott and Rogers are also responsible for the fine hexagonal pulpit, as well as the highly embellished royal pew. The church also has special pews called the Diocesan and Corporation pews, as well as the pew of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, which is the patron of the church.
Entrance to St Michael, Cornhill, with war memorial to the right
A further campaign of medievalising decoration was carried out in the late 1860s by Herbert Williams, who had worked with Scott on the earlier scheme. Williams built a three-bay cloister-like passage, with plaster vaults, on the south side of the building, and in the body of the church added richly painted decoration to Wren's columns and capitals. The reredos was enriched with inlaid marble, and the chancel was given new white marble steps and a mosaic floor of Minton’s tesserae and tiles. In what the Building News described as a "startling novelty", a circular opening was cut in the vault of each aisle bay and filled with stained glass, and skylights installed above.[18]
Few original furnishings were retained in its Victorian re-imagining, but the 1672 font given by James Paul survived, although a new balustrade was added.[19]
Recent history
A First World War memorial was unveiled beside the entrance to the church in 1920, featuring a bronze statue of St Michael by Richard Reginald Goulden. The memorial became a Grade II* listed building in December 2016.
The church escaped serious damage during the Second World War, and was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.[20] In 1960, the Victorian polychrome paintwork was replaced with a more restrained colour scheme of blue, gold and white.[2]
The church vestry hosts the annual ward mote and polling station for the City of London ward of Cornhill.
In 2016, the parish was forced to dissolve its parochial church council due to insolvency, and services were halted. It is currently one of the church buildings used by St Helen's, Bishopsgate.[23] While services have resumed, there is no longer a Sung Eucharist on Sunday mornings, and the sacrament is no longer reserved in the sanctuary, marking a significant change in churchmanship.
↑ An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in London, Volume 3, Roman London. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1928, pp. 106–145, accessed 25 October 2022
↑ Chronicle of the abbey of Evesham, for the year 1418, by Macray, William Dunn 1863, p. 75, accessed 25 October 2022
↑ "The City of London Churches: monuments of another age" Quantrill, E; Quantrill, M p. 82: London; Quartet; 1975
↑ Hughson, David (1803). London. Vol.2. London: J. Stratford. p.129.
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