Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
| St. Olave Hart Street | |
Photo of St. Olave Hart Street
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| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Denomination | Church of England, earlier Roman Catholic |
| Website | http://www.sanctuaryinthecity.net/St-Olaves.html |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Perpendicular Gothic |
St Olave Hart Street is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station.
John Betjeman described St Olave’s as “a country church in the world of Seething Lane."[1] The church is one of the smallest in the City and is one of only a handful of medieval City churches that escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666. In addition to being a local parish church, St Olave’s is the Ward Church of the Tower Ward of the City of London.[2]
Coordinates: 51°30′39.04″N 0°4′46.88″W / 51.5108444°N 0.0796889°W / 51.5108444; -0.0796889
Annotations
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St. Olave’s Hart Street —
one of the medieval churches that survived the Great Fire; heavily damaged in the blitz, but subsequently restored.
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The Rocque Map reference:
http://www.motco.com/Map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFulla.asp?mode=query&artist=384&other=321&x=11&y=11
Best guess is that the church is across Seething Lane from their home.
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more resources for the the visitor
http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/london2002/april2002/25apr2002b/
http://www.londontaxitour.com/london-taxi-tour-sights-churches-st-olave-hart-street.htm
http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/peopepys.htmhttp://www.moodmapper.com/idx_result.asp?mood_id=349&place_ID=223
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Brief information from about 60 years later, in 1722.
http://www.londonancestor.com/stow/stow-church-122.htm
There are 220 houses in the parish, which is absolutely tiny, so the population density here must have returned to that which existed before the Great Fire of 1666.
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About two centuries after the Diary, Charles Dickens wrote a whimsical account of St Olave’s in “The Uncommercial Traveller” as follows:
“When I think I deserve particularly well of myself, and have earned the right to enjoy a little treat, I stroll from Covent-garden into the City of London, after business-hours there, on a Saturday, or - better yet - on a Sunday, and roam about its deserted nooks and corners. It is necessary to the full enjoyment of these journeys that they should be made in summer-time, for then the retired spots that I love to haunt, are at their idlest and dullest. A gentle fall of rain is not objectionable, and a warm mist sets off my favourite retreats to decided advantage.
Among these, City Churchyards hold a high place”“One of my best beloved churchyards, I call the churchyard of Saint Ghastly Grim; touching what men in general call it, I have no information. It lies at the heart of the City, and the Blackwall Railway shrieks at it daily. It is a small small churchyard, with a ferocious, strong, spiked iron gate, like a jail. This gate is ornamented with skulls and cross-bones, larger than the life, wrought in stone; but it likewise came into the mind of Saint Ghastly Grim, that to stick iron spikes a-top of the stone skulls, as though they were impaled, would be a pleasant device. Therefore the skulls grin aloft horribly, thrust through and through with iron spears. Hence, there is attraction of repulsion for me in Saint Ghastly Grim, and, having often contemplated it in the daylight and the dark, I once felt drawn towards it in a thunderstorm at midnight. ‘Why not?’ I said, in self-excuse. ‘I have been to see the Colosseum by the light of the moon; is it worse to go to see Saint Ghastly Grim by the light of the lightning?’ I repaired to the Saint in a hackney cab, and found the skulls most effective, having the air of a public execution, and seeming, as the lightning flashed, to wink and grin with the pain of the spikes. Having no other person to whom to impart my satisfaction, I communicated it to the driver. So far from being responsive, he surveyed me - he was naturally a bottled-nosed, red-faced man - with a blanched countenance. And as he drove me back, he ever and again glanced in over his shoulder through the little front window of his carriage, as mistrusting that I was a fare originally from a grave in the churchyard of Saint Ghastly Grim, who might have flitted home again without paying.”
Here’s a recent photograph:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57351475@N00/19684301/in/photostream/
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Panorama of inside St Olave Church…
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Detailed current description of architecture, monuments, furnishings, etc.
Buildings of England: London I, The City Yale UP, 1999. (rev ed.) pp 253-255
References in the diary
- 1660
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Aug: 19, 24, 26, 29
Sep: 9, 23, 26, 30
Oct: 21
Nov: 4, 11, 18, 25
Dec: 2, 16, 23, 25
- 1661
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Jan: 6, 13, 20, 27
Mar: 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
May: 26
Jun: 2, 23, 30
Jul: 28
Aug: 11, 18, 25
Sep: 1, 8, 15, 29
Oct: 6, 20, 27
Nov: 10, 17
Dec: 1, 15, 22, 25
- 1662
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Jan: 5, 12, 19, 26, 30
Feb: 2, 16
Mar: 2, 9, 23, 30
May: 11, 25
Jun: 1, 8, 15, 29
Jul: 6, 13, 27
Aug: 31
Sep: 14, 28
Oct: 5, 26
Nov: 2, 16, 23, 30
Dec: 7, 14, 21, 28
- 1663
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Jan: 4, 11, 18, 30
Feb: 1, 15
Mar: 15, 22, 29
Apr: 5, 12, 19, 26
May: 3, 17, 24, 31
Jun: 7, 14, 21
Jul: 5, 19
Aug: 9, 16, 23
Sep: 27
Oct: 4, 18, 25
Nov: 1, 8, 22, 29
Dec: 6, 13, 20, 25, 27
- 1664
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Feb: 7, 14
Mar: 6
Apr: 17
May: 8
Jun: 26
Jul: 31
Aug: 2, 28
Sep: 11
Oct: 9, 23, 30
Nov: 6, 13, 27
Dec: 4, 18, 25
- 1665
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Jan: 15, 22
Feb: 26
Apr: 9
May: 7, 14
Jun: 18, 20
Sep: 3
- 1666
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Jan: 30
Feb: 4, 11
Mar: 11, 18
Apr: 29
May: 6, 20, 27
Jun: 3, 6
Jul: 8, 15, 29
Sep: 9, 30
Oct: 7, 14, 21, 28
Nov: 4, 11, 20
Dec: 2, 23, 25, 30
- 1667
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Jan: 6, 13, 20