My February blog was about the former All Saints’ Church which is now the Natural History Museum. This month we are going to move a short distance to the west of it to the place where another church once stood at the corner of High Street and St. Nicholas Street. This street name gives us the clue that St. Nicholas Church once stood on this site.
The original church was built in the 12th century. It used Roman walls in its foundations and also had upstanding Roman walls as part of its structure as no medieval walls were found in excavations when it was demolished. The church was rebuilt in the 14th century. The tower is said to have collapsed in the late 17th century and a tower was built or rebuilt in the 18th century. It was restored again between 1875 and 1876 to designs by Sir George Gilbert Scott when it was largely rebuilt and made much bigger. It had the highest spire in Colchester.
It was demolished in 1955 and the site was sold for commercial redevelopment. The Colchester Co-operative Society built a department store known as St Nicholas House on the site and it is now a hotel and shops. By all accounts it was a magnificent church, but little care was taken in recording it properly when it was demolished so not much more is known about it. However, its graveyard survives behind the building that replaced it on the south side. It was neglected for many years but is now being turned into a public area by Colchester City Council.
If you would like to see some of the buildings mentioned in my blog, along with many others, and hear their stories please book a tour with me by contacting me.
