St Nicholas has a chequered history and today stands marooned at the southern end of the harbour, a stone’s drop from the harbour wall. Its small tower is surmounted by an Italianate cupola which must offer excellent views over the twin settlements of West and East Looe.

As befits, two Cornish neighbours, the two settlements of West and East Looe once lay in separate parishes – Talland and St Martin – no doubt producing the inevitable rivalries. East Looe the more commercial with its larger area of flat land, while West Looe was the quieter.

The church of St Mary in East Looe has now been converted to residential flats, leaving St Nicholas as the major church for the two. Its size suggests that congregations are not large.

Founded in the late C13 or early C14, St Nicholas fell in and out of use as a church, acting at various times as prison, school and Guildhall. Finally, in 1852, it was extensively restored back to being a church. A final indignity was the creation of the Hannafore road around its south side, leaving it looking close to a traffic island but its exterior has charm.

Inside, the atmosphere is simple, as one might expect from such a heavily restored church: more small school chapel than church.

There is late C19 simplicity in everything except the timbers of the short north aisle which were recycled from the San Jose (later HMS San Josef), a Spanish battleship captured by Nelson at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 and finally broken up in Plymouth.