Cornmarket Street: St Michael at the Northgate
The above photograph shows St Michael-at-the Northgate Church prior to 2025, when a handrail balustrade
was installed at the top of the tower (planning permission 24/01668/FUL) and the weather vane removed
St Michael at the Northgate Church in Cornmarket marks the position of the city’s old North Gate.
Its tower was built around 1050 and is Oxford’s oldest remaining building: it is recorded in the Domesday Book.
The Church is Grade I listed (list entry 1185714), and its screen and gates are Grade II listed (list entry 1047326).
Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, described the parishioners of this church on 26 January 1857:
Many of the shopkeepers of highest class Dissenters. They are active in Business & throng into Cornmarket Street. None attend daily service. Very few poor ... comm[unican]ts 63 on Xmas day. 14 Public Houses & dancing saloon next to the Church ... one R Cath[olic], 2 Jews....
St Michael-at-the-Northgate has been the City Church since 1971, following the closure of the two earlier City Churches (St Martin's at Carfax in 1896 and All Saints in the High Street in 1971).
