Architectural Features
I There was apparently a church here in the C12, but it was wholly rebuilt in the late 1320s by Hervey de Stanton for his new foundation of Michael House, a precursor of Trinity College.
The early C21 conversion insertions are of timber, glass and steel.
EXTERIOR: The exterior detailing is wholly C14 in style, restored in places.
The N porch is also C19, rebuilt by Scott, but the N door is C14.
As the conversion is largely reversible, and the building is mostly still legible through it, the medieval and C21 work are discussed separately.
On the N is a C14 door to the former vestry.
On the S is a 4-bay sedilia and piscina pierced by a squint to the S chapel and just to the W of it a very richly carved ogee-headed doorway.
The S chapel has very fine C14 statue niches, possibly slightly later than the rest of the building, on either side of its E window.
The nave and chancel roofs have short king-posts and, although heavily restored following a fire in 1849, may retain some C14 timbers.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The worship areas have very fine medieval and C19 fittings.
The C14 chancel piscina and 3-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 S arcade screen is similar, and has an ogee headed doorway with a crocketted surround on both sides and an embattled cornice.
This may be a part of the C14 chancel screen reset at a later date.
There is a plainer, C14 piscina with a foiled head in the S chapel and another in the N vestry.
The statue niches flanking the E window in the S 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 E window and may be additions of the later C14.
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 c.1550.
Two C17 benches with poppyheads and simple strapwork under the seats in the chancel.
Richly painted, stenciled 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 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.
The chancel piscina and sedilia were also recoloured in the C19, and there are fine C19 geometric tiles in the chancel installed by Scott, Jnr.
The E window glass is by Hardman of 1872 as a memorial for the former vicar, William Beaumont, d. 1868.
HISTORY: There was a parish church on this site by the C12.
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.
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.
SOURCES Loewe, A., Michaelhouse, leaflet Newman, J., Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire , 228-9 Victoria County History, Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, III 123-32 RCHME: City of Cambridge, II , 284-6 REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The Church of St Michael, Cambridge, is designated at Grade I for the following principal reasons: * Outstanding example of a single phase C14 church, securely dated to the late 1320s, restored by noted church architect Gilbert Scott after a fire in 1849. * Distinctive plan with the chancel larger than the nave, reflecting its intended dual use as a college chapel and a parish church. * Outstanding C14 fittings, including chancel sedilia
piscina, screen fragment and statue niches in S chapel. * C15 choir stalls. * Excellent C19 reredos and painted decoration in the chancel. * Converted to multi-use space in early C21, but sympathetically and without damage to the legibility of the building.