All of Ghent's churches were closed during the French Revolution. The municipality of Ghent even suggested to set up a grain hall in St Nicholas's church, but eventually it did not come to that. In 1800 the doors swung open again for religious services. The church however was in a poor state. A lot had been stolen in the days of the revolution, such as parts of the furniture, sculptures, the rood loft, the chapel screens, the light fittings, ...

The first traces of historic interest for the church as a monument date from 1840 approximately. The Municipal Commission for Monuments and Townscape asked Jules de Saint-Genois and Auguste van Lokeren to make a report about the state of the church. But we had to wait until the second half of the 19th century before some real concern was shown. The neogothic architects are to be thanked for that. At that time less attention was paid to the rich and varied decoration of the church from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Nowadays however, restorers give more and more attention to this historically valuable decoration.