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Key Image St Olave Hart Street
8 Hart Street
EC3R 7NB London (City of London)
United Kingdom
Denomination: Anglican
Congregation: St. Olave, Hart Street and All Hallows, Staining etc. (Diocese of London, Archdeaconry of London, The City)
Geogr. Coordinates: 51.51088° N, 0.07945° W
Geo Location
Reference year: 1450
Architectural style: Gothic
Building type: Basilica
Description: Three-aisled, gothic basilica in the Perpendicular style.
Name derivation: From St Olaf (King of Norway) and the location in Hart Street
Outside facilities
  • Cemetery gateway with skulls (1658; inspired Charles Dickens to commemorate the church in “The Uncommercial Traveller” as “St Ghastly Grim”);
Noteworthy
  • Last resting place for Samuel Pepys and his wife Elizabeth
History:
12th cent.:   First mention of a precursor church
1270:   Building of the crypt (still preserved)
15th cent.:   Construction of the current church (remains of walls dated c. 1270 at the west end)
17/07/1660:   Samuel Pepys und seine Frau Elizabeth werden Gemeindeglieder von St Olave
Sep 1666:   Saved from the Great Fire of London due to the efforts of Samuel Pepys and William Penn Sr
05/06/1703:   Samuel Pepys wird in St Olave bestattet
1941:   Severely damaged during the Second World War
1954:   Completion of the (remarkably competent) three-year restoration by Ernest Glanfield
Important persons:
Congregation member:  Pepys, Samuel (1632–1703, Chief Secretary to the Admiralty, President of the Royal Society and Member of Parliament)
Patron:  Olaf II Haraldsson (995–1030, King of Norway, martyr)
Sources
Bradley, Simon, Nikolaus Pevsner: London: The City Churches, Yale University Press, New Haven/London 2002, pp. 119–121
Tucker, Tony: City of London Churches, Guidelines Books, Stoke-on-Trent 2013, pp. 84–85
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TuK Bassler
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