ST. OLAVE, HART STREET

City of London

St Olave is another of those churches to have somehow survived the Great Fire of London. It dates to around 1450, although some work appears to be older. It is one of the City’s smaller churches – described by Betjeman as “a country church in the world of Seething Lane”.

The flames of the Great Fire got to within 100 metres of the Church before a change in wind direction saved it.

Sadly, what the Great Fire failed to do the Luftwaffe succeeded in and around a third of the Church was destroyed in 1941. What remained was then restored by Ernest Glanfield in very good imitation of the original. The original medieval crypt also survives.

The most famous burial here is Samuel Pepys who, with his wife Elizabeth, is interred at St Olave Hart Street having often worshipped here.

Photo - Andrew J. Müller

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2018