St Olave's Church, Old Jewry

St Olave's Church, Old Jewry
St Olave's Church, Old Jewry
	Tower and west wall of St. Olave Old Jewry
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Anglican
Architecture
Architect(s)	SirChristopher Wren
Style	Baroque

St Olave's Church, Old Jewry,sometimes known asUpwell Old Jewry,^[1]was a church in theCity of Londonlocated between the street calledOld JewryandIronmonger Lane.Destroyed in theGreat Fire of Londonin 1666, the church was rebuilt by the office ofSir Christopher Wren.^[2]The church was demolished in 1887, except for the tower and west wall, which remain today.

History[edit]

St Olave, Old Jewry is dedicated to the 11th-century patron saint of Norway,St Olaf.Old Jewrywas the precinct of medieval London largely occupied and populated byJewsuntil theirexpulsion from Englandin 1290. The church is also recorded asSt Olave in ColechirchlaneandSt Olave, Upwell,the latter appellation coming from a well under the east end of the church.

The earliest surviving reference is in a manuscript ofc. 1130,but excavations made during 1985 uncovered the foundations of aSaxonpredecessor, built between the 9th and 11th centuries, fromKentish ragstoneand recycledRoman bricks.

After the church's destruction in the Great Fire, the parish was united with that ofSt Martin Pomeroy,a tiny church that already shared the small churchyard of St Olave Old Jewry. The two pre-Fire churches were nearly adjacent. Rebuilding began in 1671, incorporating much of the medieval walls and foundations. The tower was built separately, projecting from the west of the church, and required the carpenter to build a timber platform 16 feet (4.9 m) below ground to support the rubble foundation. The church was completed in 1679 at a cost of £5,580, including £10 paid to the then still ruinedSt Paul's Cathedralfor rubble.

St Olave's was the burial place ofRobert Large,Lord Mayor,mercerand master ofWilliam Caxton,in 1440. A much later Lord Mayor, and publisher,John Boydellwas buried in the church in 1804. Boydell would visit the church pump (built atop the medieval well) at 5 am each morning, place his periwig on top and douse his head from the spout. His monument survives, transplanted toSt Margaret Lothbury.The memorial inscriptions of St Olave's were recorded and published by F.A. Crisp in 1887.^[3]

TheMaster of the King's Music,Maurice Greene,was buried in St Olave's in 1755. Upon the church's demolition, his remains were moved toSt. Paul's Cathedral.

Despite being restored in 1879, the body of the church was demolished in 1887 under theUnion of Benefices Act.The site was sold for £22,400 and the proceeds used to buildSt Olave's Manor House.The dead were disinterred and their remains moved toCity of London Cemetery,Manor Park,the parish combined with that of St Margaret Lothbury, and the furnishings dispersed to several other churches. Thereredos,font cover and other wooden furnishings and plate went to St Margaret Lothbury; the royal arms went toSt Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe;the clock went toSt Olave Hart Street;thepulpitandbaptismal fontwent to St Olave's Manor House; and the organ went to Christchurch inPenge.^[4]The tower, west wall and part of the north wall were kept and incorporated into a new building which included a rectory for St Margaret Lothbury. This was replaced in 1986 by an office building, in a sympathetic style, designed by the firm of architects Swanke, Hayden, Connell. The churchyard survives as the courtyard to the office building.

Architecture[edit]

In outline, the church was shaped like a wine bottle on its side, with the projecting west tower a truncated neck, the angular west front its shoulders, tapering towards a narrow base to the east. The main façade was on Old Jewry and featured a largeVenetian windowwith columns and a fullentablature.

The 88-foot (27 m) tower is the only one built by Wren's office that is battered, i.e., is slightly wider at the bottom than the top.^[5]The door to the tower has a segmental pediment and is flanked by Doric columns. On top of the tower is a simple parapet with tall obelisks on each corner with balls on top. In the centre of the tower is a vane in the shape of a sailing ship, taken fromSt Mildred, Poultry.

A tower clock dated 1824 (built byMoore & Sonof Clerkenwell)^[6]was removed with the rest of the church furnishings at the time of the demolition; in 1891 it was installed in the tower of St Olave's Hart Street.^[7]The current clock was installed after 1972. The pediment which surrounds it is original and previously framed a window.

A description from the early 18th century describes the interior as extensively decorated with paintings to an extent unparalleled in other Wren churches, viz.,

OfQueen Elizabethlying on a fine couch with her regalia, under an arched canopy, on which are placed her arms.
OfKing Charles I.
The figure ofTime,with wings displayed, a scythe in his right hand, and an hour glass in his left; at his foot is aCupiddormant, and under him a skeleton eight feet long.^[8]

The remains of the church were designated a Grade Ilisted buildingon 4 January 1950.^[9]

Notes[edit]

^"The London Encyclopaedia"Hibbert,Christopher;Weinreb, Ben;Keay,John:London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008)ISBN 978-1405049245
^"A Dictionary of London" Harben,H: London, Herbert Jenkins, 1918
^F.A. Crisp,Monumental Inscriptions in the Church of St. Olave's, Jewry, London(Private, London 1887),view at Google.
^Weinreb, Ben;Hibbert, Christopher(1992).The London Encyclopaedia(reprint ed.).Macmillan.p. 774.
^"London:the City Churches" Pevsner,N; Bradley,S New Haven, Yale, 1998ISBN 0300096550
^Vulliamy, B. L. (1828).Some Considerations on the subject of Public Clocks.London: B. McMillan. p. 6.
^Povah, Alfred (1894).The annals of the parishes of St. Olave Hart Street and Allhallows Staining, in the city of London.London: Blades, East & Blades. p. 46.Retrieved31 December2023.
^Cobb: 108–109.
^Historic England."Details from listed building database (1359180)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved23 January2009.

References[edit]

Jeffery, Paul.The city churches of Sir Christopher Wren,Hambledon Press, 1996
Cobb, Gerald.London city churches,B T Batsford Ltd., 1977
Heulin, Gordon.Vanished churches of the City of London,Guildhall Library Publications, 1996
Weinreb, Ben & Hibbert, Christopher (eds.).The London encyclopedia,Macmillan, 1992

51°30′52.15″N0°5′28.70″W/ 51.5144861°N 0.0913056°W/51.5144861; -0.0913056

[1] "The London Encyclopaedia"Hibbert,Christopher;Weinreb, Ben;Keay,John:London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008)ISBN 978-1405049245

[2] "A Dictionary of London" Harben,H: London, Herbert Jenkins, 1918

[Crisp-3] F.A. Crisp,Monumental Inscriptions in the Church of St. Olave's, Jewry, London(Private, London 1887),view at Google.

[4] Weinreb, Ben;Hibbert, Christopher(1992).The London Encyclopaedia(reprint ed.).Macmillan.p. 774.

[5] "London:the City Churches" Pevsner,N; Bradley,S New Haven, Yale, 1998ISBN 0300096550

[6] Vulliamy, B. L. (1828).Some Considerations on the subject of Public Clocks.London: B. McMillan. p. 6.

[7] Povah, Alfred (1894).The annals of the parishes of St. Olave Hart Street and Allhallows Staining, in the city of London.London: Blades, East & Blades. p. 46.Retrieved31 December2023.

[Cobb108–9-8] Cobb: 108–109.

[9] Historic England."Details from listed building database (1359180)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved23 January2009.

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v t e Churches in the City of London
extant churches	All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows-on-the-Wall City Temple Dutch Church, Austin Friars St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe St Andrew, Holborn St Andrew Undershaft St Anne and St Agnes St Bartholomew-the-Great St Bartholomew-the-Less St Benet, Paul's Wharf St Botolph, Aldersgate St Botolph, Aldgate St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate St Bride, Fleet Street St Clement, Eastcheap St Dunstan-in-the-West St Edmund, King and Martyr St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate St Giles, Cripplegate St Helen, Bishopsgate St James, Garlickhythe St Katharine Cree St Lawrence Jewry St Magnus the Martyr St Margaret Lothbury St Margaret Pattens St Martin, Ludgate St Mary Abchurch St Mary Aldermary St Mary Moorfields St Mary Woolnoth St Mary-at-Hill St Mary-le-Bow St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Paternoster Royal St Nicholas, Cole Abbey St Olave, Hart Street St Paul's Cathedral St Peter upon Cornhill St Sepulchre-without-Newgate St Stephen Walbrook St Vedast alias Foster Temple Church
churches of which only the tower remains	All Hallows Staining Christ Church, Greyfriars St Alban, Wood Street St Alphage London Wall St Augustine, Watling Street St Dunstan-in-the-East St Martin Orgar St Mary Somerset St Olave, Old Jewry
churches rebuilt after the Great Fire but since demolished	All Hallows Bread Street All Hallows Lombard Street All-Hallows-the-Great St Antholin, Budge Row St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange St Benet Fink St Benet Gracechurch St Christopher le Stocks St Dionis Backchurch St George Botolph Lane St Katherine Coleman St Mary Aldermanbury St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street St Matthew Friday Street St Michael Bassishaw St Michael, Crooked Lane St Michael Queenhithe St Michael Wood Street St Mildred, Bread Street St Mildred, Poultry St Stephen Coleman Street St Swithin, London Stone
churches destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt	All Hallows Honey Lane All-Hallows-the-Less Holy Trinity the Less St Andrew Hubbard St Ann Blackfriars St Benet Sherehog St Botolph Billingsgate St Faith under St Paul's St Gabriel Fenchurch St Gregory by St Paul's St John the Baptist upon Walbrook St John the Evangelist Friday Street St John Zachary St Laurence Pountney St Leonard, Eastcheap St Leonard, Foster Lane St Margaret Moses St Margaret, New Fish Street St Martin Pomary St Martin Vintry St Mary Bothaw St Mary Colechurch St Mary Magdalen Milk Street St Mary Mounthaw St Mary Staining St Mary Woolchurch Haw St Michael-le-Querne St Nicholas Acons St Nicholas Olave St Olave, Silver Street St Pancras, Soper Lane St Peter, Paul's Wharf St Peter, Westcheap St Thomas the Apostle
other former churches	College of Minor Canons Holy Trinity Gough Square Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate Hospital of St Thomas of Acre Old St Paul's Cathedral St Audoen within Newgate St Augustine Papey St James Duke's Place St Martin Outwich St Mary Axe St Nicholas Shambles St Peter le Poer

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