File:Wonderful London (1927) 49 – St Olave Hart Street from Seething Lane.jpg

St Olave, Hart Street, London

Photogravure by Donald Macleish from Wonderful London by St John Adcock, 1927.

St Olave Hart Street is a medieval church set in the surprisingly quiet and narrow streets near Fenchurch Street station. One of the most pleasing of the City of London churches, both in its setting and in its interior. It was far enough east to escape the ravages of the Great Fire, much to the relief of Samuel Pepys, whose parish church this was and who worked in the Navy Office next door. In the 1930s Betjeman described it as seeming like an East Anglian country parish church on holiday in the heart of the City. The church did not, alas, survive the Blitz similarly unscathed, but the exterior and setting today appear remarkably similar to postcards and photographs of the 1920s, set on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane with a polite little public garden behind. Don't miss the grinning skulls above the gateway.

Since the terrorist bombing of St Ethelburga in 1993, St Olave is the smallest surviving intact medieval church in the City. The interior has been carefully restored and perhaps retains something of its original atmosphere - indeed, the post-war restoration got rid of the worst of the middle-brow 19th Century restorations by Arthur Blomfield and Ewan Christian. Furnishings were brought out of store from All Hallows Staining and St Katherine Coleman, two churches in adjacent streets which had been demolished for building work in the 19th Century. The glass is now all post-war and by two artists whose reputations for fine work are firmly established, Arthur Buss and John Hayward.