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The rabbit-eared tower, with its echoes of St Mary
Aldermary, is hemmed in by the busy 19th Century
townscape of Cornhill. The church, apart from its tower,
was destroyed in the Great Fire, but then rebuilt by the
parish. The rebuilding is often credited to Wren, but as
Simon Bradley points out there is no evidence that the
workshop was involved. The old tower was then taken down
and the parish proceeded to build a new one. It was
completed to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor in the
1720s. In the 1850s George Gilbert Scott came along, and
St Michael received what was probably the biggest
Victorianisation of any large City church. All the 17th
Century furnishings were removed, the windows filled with
Italian-style tracery and a porch was added facing into
Cornhill. Most invasive of all, Scott filled the interior
with polychromatic decoration in the style of the day,
although Wayland Young notes that the devastating
effect of Scott's work... was reduced in 1952 by the
substitution of white and gold paint for his harsh
polychrome. However, Scott's furnishings are all of
the highest quality, and it is difficult to regret his
impact. One great survival is the organ, originally of
1684 and generally considered one of the best in the
City.The Pterodactyl about
to pounce on the font is actually a pelican in her piety
if you look closely, though it is hard to tell. The
splendid war memorial depicting the church's patron saint
is by Richard Goulden. There is a sweet little garden out
the back, and its rectangular shape with a path going
around the outside might help to suggest to you what it
once was, a cloister.
Simon Knott, December 2015
location: Cornhill 3/048
status: working parish church
access: currently, the church appears to be open
daily, Monday to Friday.
                      
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