St Michael Bassishaw, or Basinshaw, was a parish church in

Basinghall Street Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London. Small, it is bounded by wards: Coleman Street, east; Cheap, south; Cripplegate, north; Aldersgate, west. It first consisted of Basinghall Street with the courts and short side streets off it,

in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, standing on land now occupied by the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

complex. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

. The rebuilt church was demolished in 1900.

History

St Michael Bassishaw was one of seven churches in the City of London dedicated to the

Archangel Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

. The earliest surviving reference to the church is in a deed of 1196, as “St Michael de Bassishaghe”. This has been interpreted as Basing's haw, in which Basing is the name of a prominent family in medieval London and ‘haw’ means yard. The north wall of the 12th-century church was built over Roman and medieval rubbish pits, so that it had to be strengthened by buttresses. This was established by excavations in the late 19th century and in 1965. A 14th-century parish priest of St Michael's, by the name of William, dug a ditch outside the church to assert his ownership and control of the

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

, but was obliged by the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

to fill it in again. The church was rebuilt in the 15th century. John Burton, a mercer, and his wife Agnes were major contributors to the cost "as appeared by his mark placed throughout the whole roof of the Choir, and the middle Isle of the Church". Burton died in 1460 and was buried in the choir of the new church. From the fifteenth century, the dean and chapter of St Paul's Cathedral were patrons of the parish, meaning they appointed its clergy. A chapel was built on the north side of the choir by Sir James Yerford (or Yarford), Lord Mayor in 1520. He was buried there in 1527. The building restored in 1630, but all was lost in the

Great Fire of 1666 The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

. In 1662, Francis Hall, a chaplain to Charles II, was appointed as Rector. He fled the parish on the outbreak of the

Great Plague of London The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent bubonic plague epidemics that origi ...

in 1665, and returned only in 1670 to collect his stipend. His substitute, a priest called Williams, succumbed to the plague in September 1665, along with his wife and three children.

17th century rebuilding

Following the Great Fire of London, a new church designed by Wren was begun in 1675 and was completed four years later. The contractor, John Fitch, encountered problems with the foundations at the east end, so removed them and piled the ground. The walls were faced with brick, instead of the usual stone, and there were load-bearing Corinthian columns. Fitch's work was unsatisfactory to the parish, and his columns were later described as "specimens of... jerry-building... made up of several sorts of materials and plastered over." By 1693, the parish was lobbying Wren to pay for repairs. By 1700, the church was being shored up and was in need of repair. This was undertaken in 1713, when the upper parts of the walls were taken down and rebuilt, the slate roof was replaced with a lead roof, and a steeple was added. The total cost of rebuilding was £5,704, then a gigantic sum. The tower, also of brick, was to the west of the church. The steeple, probably designed by

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...

, took the form of an octagonal drum surmounted by a lantern, from which emerged a trumpet-shaped cone. On top of this was a ball and finial, which survived the demolition and are now on the spire of

St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe is a Church of England church located on Queen Victoria Street, London in the City of London, near Blackfriars station. History First mentioned around 1170, St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe was almost certainly founded conside ...

. In 1839, George Godwin described St Michael's as "a plain substantial building without any striking features". It was 70 feet long and 50 feet wide, divided into a nave and aisles by Corinthian columns, which supported an elaborate entablature and a coved ceiling. The plan was irregular, and the building was smaller than the pre-Fire church. The main front was on the east side, facing onto Basinghall Street, and was unadorned except for a large round-headed window flanked by two round windows. In 1821, the brickwork was rendered with

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

and pointed in imitation of stone.

Burials

* Sir John Gresham, 1556 *

Thomas Storer Thomas Storer (c. 1571 – 1604) was an England, English poet and mathematician. His major work was the ''Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey''. Life He was the son of John Storer of London. He was elected a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 158 ...

, 1604 * Thomas Wharton, anatomist, 1673 The Harleian Society copied the parish registers and compiled a series of books in 1944. Volume 74. The work was transcribed and edited by A.W Hughes Clarke F.S.A. It lists the baptisms, marriages and burials in this parish between 1733 and 1852. It comprises 189 pages of names dates and other details.

Demolition

In the late 19th century, sanitary regulations obliged the church to clear its crypt of human remains. The work revealed the weakness of the foundations, and in 1892 the church was judged unsafe and was closed, its parish combined with that of

St Lawrence Jewry St Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall is a Church of England guild church in the City of London on Gresham Street, next to Guildhall. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It is the ...

. St Michael Bassishaw was demolished in 1900 and the land sold to the City of London Corporation for £36,000. Part of the proceeds was used to build two new churches in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, in north London, St Aldhelm's church, Silver Street, London, N18 (consecrated 1903; architect

W. D. Caroe W. may refer to: * SoHo (Australian TV channel) (previously W.), an Australian pay television channel * ''W.'' (film), a 2008 American biographical drama film based on the life of George W. Bush * "W.", the fifth track from Codeine's 1992 EP ''Bar ...

, 1857–1938),'Edmonton: Churches', pp.181-7. ''A History of the County of Middlesex'', volume 5, originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1976
accessed 1 May 2016 and St Michael's church, Bury Street, London, N9 (consecrated 1901; architect

, 1857–1938). St Michael's was declared redundant in 1982 and converted into apartments.'Former Church of St Michael, now Caroe Court' in ''British Listed Buildings''
accessed 1 May 2016 An office building called Bassishaw House was built on the site of the City church. This was demolished in 1965. An archaeological excavation was carried out, during which some remains of the church's mediaeval foundations were uncovered. Today the site once occupied by St Michael's lies beneath the courtyard of the Guildhall offices and the Barbican highwalk. A plaster royal coat of arms from St Michael Bassishaw – the grandest of those in any Wren church – can now be found in the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

complex. The weathervane went to

and the organ to

King's College, Taunton (Strong and faithful) , established = 1880 , closed = , type = Independent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

References

External links