Ward of Cornhill
Location within the City
Ward of Cornhill Location withinGreater London
OS grid reference	TQ327811
Sui generis	City of London
Administrative area	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	EC3
Dialling code	020
Police	City of London
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Cities of London and Westminster
London Assembly	City and East
List of places UK England London 51°30′49″N0°05′06″W / 51.5135°N 0.085°W /51.5135; -0.085

Cornhill (formerly alsoCornhil) is award and street in theCity of London, the historic nucleus and financial centre of modernLondon, England. The street runs betweenBank Junction andLeadenhall Street.

The hill from which it takes its name is one of the three ancient hills of London; the others areTower Hill, site of theTower of London, andLudgate Hill, crowned bySt Paul's Cathedral. The highest point of Cornhill is at 17.7 metres (58 ft) above sea level.^[1]

Cornhill is one of the traditional divisions of the City. The street contains two of the City churches designed by SirChristopher Wren:St. Michael, Cornhill, andSt Peter upon Cornhill, reputed to occupy the oldestChristianised site in London. Both are on the site of theRoman forum ofLondinium. At its other end it meetsThreadneedle Street,Poultry,Lombard Street and others atBank junction. SirThomas Gresham's originalRoyal Exchange fronted onto Cornhill, but its successor on the site, designed byWilliam Tite, faces towards theBank of England across the junction with Threadneedle Street.

The "Standard" near the junction of Cornhill andLeadenhall Street was the first mechanically pumped public water supply in London, constructed in 1582 on the site of earlier hand-pumped wells and gravity-fed conduits. The mechanism, aforce pump driven by a water wheel under the northernmost arch ofLondon Bridge, transferred water from the Thames through lead pipes to four outlets. The service was discontinued in 1603.^[2][3] This became the mark from which many distances to and from London were measured and the name still appears on older mileposts (but see also the nearbyLondon Stone andSt. Mary-le-Bow church). As an alternative to this “Standard”, 200 metres away from Leadenhall Street, opposite No 32 Cornhill, Google Maps Street View shows a pillar with spout and pump handle inscribed: “On this spot a well was first made... by Henry Wallis Mayor of London in the year 1282.”^[4]

In 1652,Pasqua Rosée, possibly a native ofRagusa, Italy, opened London's firstcoffeehouse, in St. Michael's Alley off Cornhill.

The publishers Smith, Elder and Co, based at No. 65, published the popular literary journalThe Cornhill Magazine from 1860 to 1975, as well as theDictionary of National Biography. The magazine was first edited byWilliam Makepeace Thackeray.

Cornhill Street is the address of the "Scrooge and Marley" counting house, the employer ofBob Cratchit, inCharles Dicken's1843 novella,A Christmas Carol.

Today, the street is commonly associated withopticians and makers of optical apparatus such asmicroscopes andtelescopes. A statue of the engineerJames Henry Greathead was erected in 1994 in the road beside theRoyal Exchange, which lies within the ward. Underneath the modern pavement is the world's first underground public toilet, which opened in 1855. Users were charged a standard fee of 1d, reputedly giving rise to the saying to "spend a penny".^[5]

Cornhill formed part of themarathon course of the2012 Olympic andParalympic Games. The women's Olympic marathon took place on 5 August and the men's Olympic marathon on 12 August. The four Paralympic marathons were held on 9 September.^[6][7]

The postcode for the street isEC3V.

Cornhill is one of 25 wards in the City of London, and each elects anAlderman to theCourt of Aldermen, and Commoners (the City equivalent of acouncillor) to theCourt of Common Council of theCity of London Corporation. Only electors who areFreemen of the City of London are eligible to stand.

The current alderman is Robert Howard and the current members of Common Council arePeter Dunphy (Deputy), Joanna Abeyie and Ian Seaton, elected uncontested in 2022.

The most recent Common Council election results, from 23 March 2017, are below:^{[citation needed]}

• 
  A drawing of Cornhill in the 1830s. The Royal Exchange is on the left.
• 
  Cornhill from the air
• 
  Alley adjacent to St. Michael's
• 
  Interior of St. Michael's
• 
  Cornhill in 1630, showing theRoyal Exchange and theWater-Conduit, calledthe Tun
• 
  Plan showing the extent of the Great Fire in Cornhill in 1748

• The Official Cornhill Ward Website
• City of London Corporation Map of Cornhill Ward (2011)
• "The English coffee houses"
• Cornhill, after a London map of 1750

• Hills of London
• Streets in the City of London
• Wards of the City of London
• Landforms of the City of London

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2014
• Use British English from November 2014
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• Coordinates on Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019