St Olave’s, Hart Street

St Olave’s, Hart Street is dedicated to King Olaf of Norway who is not only the patron saint of that country, but he is said to have fought alongside Ethelred the Unready at the Battle of London Bridge in 1014. At that time, London was under the control of Danish forces. Ethelred looked to take it back, but the Danes were lined up on London Bridge ready to repel the attack. Olaf’s forces attached cables to the bridge & as they rowed away, they were able to destabilise the bridge or even pull it down. This battle could have been the source of the nursery rhyme, ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’, but then again, it might not be.

The church has many connections to the 1665 plague outbreak. It is said to contain the grave of a Mary Ramsey, who was believed to be the person who brought the plague to London that year. The small Church yard is believed to be the final resting place of 326 victims of the 1665 plague outbreak. This could be why a visitor needs to go downstairs to the door as the ground level was raised by the burial of so many bodies. The carved skulls above the gate date to before that plague outbreak but were mentioned by Charles Dickins in his book, The Uncommercial Traveler where he called the church St Ghastly Grim.

The church was one of the few City churches to survive the Great Fire of 1666. This was down to the work of Sir William Penn, father of another William Penn who founded Pennsylvania in the USA. Penn senior ordered surrounding buildings to be blown up to create a fire break. The flames came within 100 meters of the building but the fire break & the wind changing direction saved it. It was also the church where the famous diarist Samuel Pepys came to pray as he worked & lived close by. Both he & his wife are buried here.

During World War 2, King Haakon VII, the exiled King of Norway worshipped here. The church was gutted by fire 1941 during the German bombing campaign & was finally restored in 1954. King Haakon returned to be a part of the rededication ceremony.