13 and 23 July, 2021
Cornhill, first mentioned in the 12th century, is a ward and a street in The City. The street goes between Bank and Leadenhall Street. Cornhill is one of the three ancient hills of London, the other being Tower Hill and Ludgate Hill. This was the site of the Roman forum of Londinium, and later a corn market, which gave the area its name. Here also was the first underground public toilet, which cost 1d, creating the term ‘to spend a penny.’ Today, the street is associated with opticians and makers of things like microscopes and telescopes. To me, it’s just a beautiful street with some stunning architecture.
Finally we reached St Michael’s Cornhill, but before we went into the church, we wandered down St Michael’s Alley. At the bottom is The Jamaica Wine House, known by locals as The Jampot. The red sandstone building dates from 1869 and was designed in art nouveau style. Many of the original features are still here, On this site in 1652, London’s first ever coffee house opened. Samuel Pepys was one of its earliest patrons. There’s a lovely detail from the original coffee house, Pasqua Rosée. At the back there are medieval courtyards.
With not much time before evensong begun, we went back to the church.
In front there is a beautiful war memorial.
For those who love historical and architectural detail, St Michael Cornhill was built over the northern part of the great Roman Forum. It’s a medieval church with the original building lost in the Great Fire of London, leaving just the tower. It’s been in existence since 1055 and was under the patronage of The Drapers’ Company during the 15th century. The present Gothic Revival style church is attributed to architects Christopher Wren (there’s doubt about that), with Nicholas Hawksmoor between 1669 and 1672. The tower was designed by Wren and Hawksmoor in the ‘Gothick’ style between 1718 and 1722. It has twelve bells cast by the Phelps Foundry of Whitechapel. Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect of the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, remodelled the interior in the High Victorian manner between 1857 and 1860. It has Tuscan columns and still has pre-Victorian features, with panelling and sculptures dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Church escaped serious damage in the Second World War and the interior was restored in 1960, with the roofs and the nave of the tower being renewed in 1975.
There’s a very interesting organ in the church. It’s built so that two parts join at a 90 degree angle. The sound was very full, but the recording I made didn’t bring that out so I was disappointed. There have been some famous organists, some serving the church for many decades. The present organist has been there for over fifty years, a fact Krish and I found quite astounding. It must be humblng to sit at the organ and play on it knowing how many other hands have touched the keys and produced music. I’m a bit sad that my recording was so poor because it was an unusual piece being played. I did find this video online that may very well be the sort of music I heard – not your normal choral sound. It’s too bad that there is a focus on hands and feet and no pull back to see the organ itself.
We sat in a pew near the back, since Krish said it was unlikely he could sit through very much. His psoriasis is very irritating and on treatment days, his skin feels like it’s burning. We did sit through most of it, but left before the sermon when he finally said he couldn’t handle any more. Since it was evensong, we couldn’t look around the church at all, but I did get a few shots of it.
Further along Cornhill towards the more modern City buildings is St Peter upon Cornhill. It’s an English Baroque building by Wren, dating from 1677. My view of it was that it was a dilapidated and confusing building without much merit. It’s attached on both sides to other buildings, notably the red Victorian building beside it. It feels squished and sandwiched there. Looking online I see enough other photos to make me wonder if I somehow got the wrong place or that I simply didn’t have the right view, so it needs a bit more research and one more visit. Given my height, the height of the church, the narrowness of Cornhill, and the heat which was pushing me on, I can only say I did my best.
The original church, like St Michael’s, was medieval and was destroyed by the Great Fire. There are stories that there has been a church here since ancient times until the coming of the Saxons in the 5th century. The story says that a tablet, since destroyed, was found here saying, Be hit known to al men, that the yeerys of our Lord God an clxxix [AD 179]. Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond, then callyd Brytayne, fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to sey, the Chyrch of Sent Peter apon Cornhyl, and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See, and made that Chirch the Metropolitant, and cheef Chirch of this kingdom. There is now a replacement inscribed brass plate hanging inside the church. Its doors were firmly closed when I walked by.
Overhead next door there’s a demon and a dragon, neither of which my camera or phone could zoom in far enough to see, so I’ll have to settle for what I can see online and on the linked site you can read a bit more about the red building.
It feels like everywhere I look there’s some building detail that makes me take my camera out. At some point I need to just put it away and promise myself it’s staying where it is. It doesn’t last long, though.
Not surprisingly, I still have more to share. I try not to curse the fact I don’t and can’t walk far. Even within such a short block, there is more than enough to photograph, and think and write about.