Church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey (City of London)
N 51° 30.719 W 000° 05.818
30U E 701435 N 5710757
Baroque church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, situated in London' Queen Victoria Street, is one of many churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren after Great Fire of London in 1666.
Waymark Code: WMMTK1
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/03/2014
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Baroque church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, situated in London' Queen Victoria Street, is one of many churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren after Great Fire of London in 1666.
The church is named after the 4th century Saint Nicholas of Myra and "Cole Abbey" is derived from "coldharbour", a medieval word for a traveller’s shelter or shelter from the cold. The current Baroque structure was erected in 1672-1678 at the site of by a fire destroyed medieval church consecrated to the same saint and firstly mentioned in the 12th century.
The church is a stone box with quoins. On top of the body of the church is a balustrade. The windows are arched with square brackets – a favourite Wren's architectural element. On the NW church's corner is a square tower surmounted by a lead spire in the shape of an upside down octagonal trumpet. On each corner of the tower is a small flaming urn. The spire has two rows of lunettes and a small balcony near the top, resembling a crow's nest. At the very top is a vane in the shape of a three-masted barque in the round.
St. Nicholas was seriously damaged during the "London Blitz" in the WWII and was reconstructed in 1961-1962. The church, belonging to the local parish of Church of England, was leased to the Free Church of Scotland in 1982-2003, then reconstructed and its interior rebuilt again. Eventually, in October 2014, was St. Nicholas reopened as Bible-based workplace ministry in the Diocese of London (Church of England).