Church Of St Michael

The Church of St Michael stands on a site occupied by a church since the 12th century. The present building was wholly rebuilt in the late 1320s by Hervey de Stanton for his new foundation of Michael House, a precursor of Trinity College. There is excellent documentary evidence for the rebuilding work. The church remained almost entirely unaltered until 1818, when the spire was taken down and the roofs slated. It was restored by Gilbert Scott in 1849-50 following a fire, who also rebuilt the north porch. Further work to refurnish the chancel took place in 1868-74 to designs by George Gilbert Scott, junior. Work to convert it to a multi-use space was completed in 2002 to designs by Shona Mackay, and includes a glazed partition between nave and chancel and an inserted gallery and service spaces in the nave.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of rubble with dressings of Barnack and other limestone, partly rendered and blocked out, with slate roofs. The early 21st-century conversion insertions are of timber, glass and steel.

Plan

The building is an aisled rectangle of five unequal bays with a tower over the west bay of the south aisle, a vestry in the east bay of the north aisle, and a projecting north porch. As it was designed as a college chapel, the chancel is larger (three bays) than the two-bay nave. The conversion closed off the chancel and east end of the south chapel for worship, introduced a gallery into the north aisle (staircase in the nave), offices and kitchen into the north chapel, and converted the rest to a multi-use café and arts space.

Exterior

The exterior detailing is wholly 14th-century in style, restored in places. The west end fronts Trinity Street and has an irregular stepped massing rising from the north aisle across the nave to the southwest tower. The nave west window is particularly fine and has branching ogee tracery creating zig-zag reticulation. The east end stands within the grounds of Trinity College. The chancel has a five-light Decorated east window, and there are two- and three-light Decorated windows with flowing tracery in the chapels, aisles and former vestry. The east window of the north aisle is blocked. There is a small, mid-19th-century door in the south chapel and another 19th-century door in the south side of the southwest tower, with a plain late 20th-century door in the north aisle. The north porch is also 19th-century, rebuilt by Scott, but the north door is 14th-century. The southwest tower is of three stages and has angle and diagonal buttresses, with a southeast stair turret and a plain parapet. The tower west window is similar to those in the south aisle.

Interior

Following its conversion to a multi-use space, the interior now reads as two separate spaces: the western café and art space, and the eastern religious space, separated by a large glazed timber screen, although this does not detract from its architectural and historical interest. Like the outside, the interior detailing (with the exception of the most recent work) is wholly Decorated in style. As the conversion is largely reversible, and the building is mostly still legible through it, the medieval and 21st-century work are discussed separately.

The chancel arch is double chamfered and has octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The arcades to the chancel chapels are of two bays and have three chamfered orders, the middle hollow chamfered, on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The eastern bay on each side of the chancel is walled in. On the north is a 14th-century door to the former vestry. On the south is a four-bay sedilia and piscina pierced by a squint to the south chapel and just to the west of it a very richly carved ogee-headed doorway. The south chapel has very fine 14th-century statue niches, possibly slightly later than the rest of the building, on either side of its east window.

There are 19th-century arches between the aisles and chapels. The nave arcades are similar to the chancel arcades. There are two bays on the north and a single bay on the south. The western bay on the south forms the south tower arch, which, like that to the east is of three continuous orders. The nave and chancel roofs have short king-posts and, although heavily restored following a fire in 1849, may retain some 14th-century timbers.

Following the conversion, the chancel arcades are blocked behind the stalls and the chancel arch is closed by a large, glazed timber screen. The gallery is accessed by a timber and steel spiral staircase. The inner faces of the nave and aisle walls are covered by screens.

Principal Fixtures

The worship areas have very fine medieval and 19th-century fittings. The 14th-century chancel piscina and three-seat sedilia are formed of four stepped niches, separated by shafts, with crocketted ogee heads. A fragment of a carved stone screen in the chancel south arcade screen is similar, and has an ogee headed doorway with a crocketted surround on both sides and an embattled cornice. The remains of another doorway are visible on the west end. This may be a part of the 14th-century chancel screen reset at a later date. There is a plainer, 14th-century piscina with a foiled head in the south chapel and another in the north vestry. The statue niches flanking the east window in the south chapel are very richly carved and have ogee heads with square frames with carved spandrels of a different, later character to the rest of the building. They sit awkwardly against the jambs of the east window and may be additions of the later 14th century.

The choir stalls, 36 in total, return across the west end of the chapel, and have shaped tops and arm rests. The misericords are mostly plain, but some have figural carving. They were made by John Say, carvar (sic) in 1481 for King's Hall, and were a gift of the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. They were moved to St Michael's around 1550.

There are additional 19th-century benches with poppy heads and open tracery fronts in front of the stalls. Two 17th-century benches with poppyheads and simple strapwork under the seats in the chancel.

The east end of the chancel was refitted in the 19th century, and the 19th-century reredos is particularly notable. Richly painted, stencilled and carved, it is in two tiers of cusped panels with an elaborate cornice. The upper tier has a central relief of the Last Supper flanked by statues of angels on pedestals. The lower tier has panels with painted Evangelist symbols and other decoration. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott, Junior in 1868. The carving is by Michael Abeloos, who also worked with Scott on the choir stalls at Ely, and the painted decoration was done by Fredrick Leach. Leach also carried out the stencilled decoration on the chancel ceiling, above the chancel arch and on the chancel arches and piers. The work on the piers now survives only in the ladies lavatories in the north aisle, but the ceiling was restored around 2007. The chancel piscina and sedilia were also recoloured in the 19th century, and there are fine 19th-century geometric tiles in the chancel installed by Scott, Junior. The east window glass is by Hardman of 1872 as a memorial for the former vicar, William Beaumont, who died in 1868.

There are some 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century wall and floor slabs in the chancel, but all the monuments in the western part of the church have been removed.

History

There was a parish church on this site by the 12th century. In 1323, it was acquired by Hervey de Stanton for use by his new college foundation, which took its name, Michael House (or Michaelhouse), from the church. Even after the church was rebuilt, part of it remained in use as a parish church, but its distinctive plan, with the choir larger than the nave, reflects its collegiate use. In 1546, it passed to the new foundation of Trinity College, created by merging Michael House and King's Hall, continuing in use as a parish church. St Michael's choir stalls are said to have come from the Trinity College chapel, but if so, they must have been brought to Trinity as the chapel there was not built until 1555-7. Alternatively, they may have come from the chapel of King's Hall, the other precursor foundation of Trinity College, where the chapel was begun in 1464-5, or they may have been made for St Michael's as part of its function as a college chapel. In 1908, the parish was amalgamated with that of the adjacent St Mary the Great, and St Michael's was used mainly as a parish hall. It was converted to a multi-use space in the 1990s, with the work completed in 2002.