Such is the overwhelming collection of unlikely paraphernalia that you encounter when you visit St Michael & All Angel’s in Shoreditch, it is as if you have walked into the mansion of Charles Foster Kane. You feel you are exploring chambers in the unconscious mind of some deranged architect or a netherworld filled with keepsakes assembled by an acquisitive time-traveller. The surrealism of multiple architectural elements from different eras arranged in random combinations within a disorienting labyrinth filling the church is as intoxicating as any film by Jean Cocteau.
In his ‘Buildings of England,’ Niklaus Pevsner wrote, “The whole is an eminently picturesque fantasy and it is a great shame that it has fallen into such shocking neglect” – yet today St Michael & All Angels has found an alternative role that proposes a strange complement to its fanciful design. Deconsecrated long ago, the handsome High Victorian Gothic church, designed by James Brooks in 1865, has been a showroom for Westland architectural salvage since 1977 and the eclectic display of statues, fireplaces and chandeliers in this setting is a breathtaking spectacle to behold.
The church and adjoining clergy house
St Michael & All Angels, Leonard St, Shoreditch, 1865
In a strange precursor of its current use, this engraving of 1865 shows the makeshift church built within the structure while it was under construction.
Westland, St Michael & All Angels’ Church, Leonard St, EC2A 4QX
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