St Michael Paternoster Royal

Pre-Great Fire London had seven churches dedicated to the Archangel Michael, all but one (St Michael le Querne) of which were rebuilt after the Great Fire. The earliest record of St Michael's is as St Michael of Paternosterchierch and is dated 1219. The suffix comes from its location on Paternoster Lane, (now College Hill), which, in turn was named after the sellers of paternosters – or rosaries – based there. The suffix Royal is first recorded in the next century and refers to another nearby street, now vanished, called Le Ryole, which was a corruption of La Réole, a town near Bordeaux. This street was so named due to the presence of numerous wine merchants. A local resident in the early…

St Michael's is rectangular in plan, with only the west front on College Hill being slightly out of true. Before the Second World War the south front was hemmed in by buildings. Following bomb damage, these buildings were cleared and Whittington Garden laid out on their site, so that St Michael's main façade is now on the south, along Upper Thames Street. The south front is faced with Portland stone and has six round-headed windows with cherub keystones. The less prominent north and east fronts are of brick. The roof is balustraded. The entrance is through the tower in the southwest corner. This has a round-headed window at the lowest level, then a circular window, then a square-headed…