St Michael's Church, Brighton

St. Michael and All Angels, Brighton
The church from the southeast
50°49′38.92″N 0°8′59.32″W / 50.8274778°N 0.1498111°W / 50.8274778; -0.1498111Coordinates: 50°49′38.92″N 0°8′59.32″W / 50.8274778°N 0.1498111°W / 50.8274778; -0.1498111
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Modern Catholic
Website	http://www.saintmichaelsbrighton.org/
History
Dedication	St. Michael and All Angels with All Saints
Administration
Parish	Brighton, S. Michael and All Angels
Deanery	Brighton
Archdeaconry	Chichester
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Father Robert Norbury
Curate(s)	Father Robert Coupland

St. Michael's Church (in full, St. Michael and All Angels) is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. Located on Victoria Road in the Montpelier area, to the east of Montpelier Road, it is one of the largest churches in the city of Brighton and Hove. The church is a Grade I listed building.

The church serves the loosely defined Montpelier and Clifton Hill areas of Brighton, which lie west of the major Dyke Road and cover the steep slopes between the Seven Dials district and the seafront.St Stephen's Church had served parts of the district since 1851, when it had been moved to Montpelier Place from its previous location in Castle Square, close to the Royal Pavilion. However, it was not convenient for the area as a whole, with most of its parishioners being drawn instead from the streets to the south of the church.

Development of the Montpelier and Clifton Hill areas started in the 1820s, and by the 1840s they had essentially taken the form they remain in today, with a range of high-quality houses, many in the form of Regency terraces and crescents such as Clifton Terrace. However, one area of open land remained: at the time (the 1850s) it was known as Temple Fields, and consisted of a field, a pond and a partly built house. This was chosen as the site for a new church to serve the area. On present-day maps, Temple Fields is the area bounded by Denmark Terrace, Clifton Hill, Powis Road and Victoria Road. The church faces three streets: St. Michael's Place, Powis Road and Victoria Road (on which the main entrance is located).

Plans for the church were drawn up in 1858, and construction took place between 1860 and 1861 to a design by George Frederick Bodley (whose father had been a doctor in Brighton and a resident of the Furze Hill area of Hove, close to the Montpelier and Clifton Hill districts). Bodley was also working on St Paul's Church in West Street, Brighton at the time, on an interior alterations project.

The design of the exterior was reminiscent of the Italianate style, in red brick with horizontal bands of white stone and a steeply pitched slate roof. This featured a modest flèche spire containing a bell recovered from Sevastopol during the Crimean War (1854–1856).