[2][3] The church occupies the east side of St Michael's Square off Bugle Street in the heart of the Old Town, opposite the Tudor House Museum.

[1] Following the Norman Conquest of England, the town of Southampton was moved west from the original Saxon settlement of Hamwic, around the older St. Mary's Church, to higher ground closer to the River Test.

[5] During the French raids on the town in October 1338, the church was badly damaged by fire, with the wooden buildings attached to it being completely destroyed.

As a result, the fabric of the church was neglected to such a degree that the chantry chapel was shut off, to be let as a dwelling house and even as a barber's shop until it was pulled down in about 1880.

T. L. Shapcott, embarking upon a major reconstruction,[5] involving new pews, raising the floor level, heightening of the aisles and extension westward of the north aisle, reconstruction of the roof to a lower pitch to bring the whole under one gable, insertion of new galleries to the designs of Francis Goodwin and the replacement of the medieval nave arcades by stuccoed brick and cast-iron pillars, making a slim, elegant contrast to the solid rough stonework of the earlier walls.

[1] In 1887, to make it a better landmark for shipping, a further 9 ft was added to the blunt shape, bringing it to its present graceful proportions.

Although the other churches in the central town, Holyrood and All Saints, were both destroyed in 1940, St. Michael's escaped with only minor damage,[5] allegedly because the spire was used by the German bombers as a landmark and their pilots were ordered not to hit it.

[5] The walls average 3 ft 10in in thickness and are pierced towards the chancel, nave and transepts with semi-circular arches of a single square order.

From 1677 onwards, the ceremony was performed without a sermon for in that year the mayor and councillors took exception to being abused from the pulpit by the Vicar, Rev.

In the eastern jamb of the window in the north wall is a merchant's mark, a square sunk panel with a shield bearing a monogram – the sign of the Woolstaplers' Guild.

To the west of the second window is the blocked north doorway, adjoining the east jamb of which is a 15th-century holy water stoup.

[10] One of the two brass lecterns was rescued from the nearby Holyrood Church during the 1940 blitz and is one of the oldest (14th/early 15th century) and finest in the country,[1] with a beautifully tapering eagle's body and separated wing feathers.

[5] The tomb is situated in the north-east corner of the church and is a delightful early-Elizabethan example of the use of fluted columns and other classical details.

[1] By the north-east corner of the tower is part of a 12th-century gravestone made from Purbeck Marble, with a carving of a bishop in mass vestments, holding a crozier.

[5][11] High on the south wall is a memorial to Bennet Langton, with Samuel Johnson's epitaph to his close friend.

The group (founded in 2000 by the Director Keith Davis) specialises in unaccompanied repertoire composed for the Christian liturgy.