Church of St Michael is a Grade I listed building in the City of London local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 January 1950. A Post-Medieval Church.
Church of St Michael
- WRENN ID
- keen-hammer-frost
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- City of London
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 January 1950
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Post-Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Michael, Cornhill Ec3, City and County of the City of London
- OS grid reference
- TQ 329 811
- Coordinates
- 51.5132, -0.08542
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Michael, located on Cornhill EC3, was built between 1670 and 1677 by Sir Christopher Wren, with the tower added from 1715 to 1721 by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The church was remodeled and refitted around 1860 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. It features an aisled body supported by arcades on Doric columns and has plaster vaults. The church includes circular clerestory windows and circular top lights in the aisles. The west tower, which is open to the church, has a vestibule to the south and a porch, entirely designed by Scott, to the north. Much of the exterior is hidden by nearby buildings. The south side of the nave is made of Portland stone and has four round-arched windows filled with 19th-century tracery. The clerestory is rendered with a wooden cornice. The tower, designed in a Gothic style, is made of Portland stone and consists of four main stages, with polygonal turrets topped with ogee caps. The porch is richly decorated in Gothic style, featuring polished pink granite shafts at the archway and extensive carvings. A First World War memorial by Richard Goulden is attached to the north-west corner, consisting of a small bronze group on a narrow stone pedestal.
The interior reflects the work of both Scott and Wren, showcasing Venetian Renaissance tracery in the windows along with fine stained glass. Above the reredos of colored marble is a circular east window that incorporates 17th-century paintings of Moses and Aaron. The mid-19th-century features include altar rails, a tiled pavement in the choir, an elaborate pulpit and lectern, and pews. A 17th-century marble font sits on a new base and is adorned with a carving of a pelican. The church also contains notable wall memorials.
Local climate
Church of St Michael sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings