St Olave Old Jewry

St Olave Old Jewry was a City of London church standing between Old Jewry and Ironmonger Lane. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, it was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren’s office and demolished in 1887 except for the tower and west wall. The churchyard survives today as the courtyard of an office building designed by Swanke, Hayden, Connell in 1986. The church was dedicated to St Olaf, the 11th-century patron saint of Norway. Excavations in 1985 found foundations of a Saxon predecessor built between the 9th and 11th centuries. After the Great Fire, the parish merged with St Martin Pomeroy, and rebuilding began in 1671. The tower, built on a deep timber platform, cost £5,580 to complete in 1679. Notable figures buried here included Lord Mayor Robert Large in 1440 and publisher John Boydell in 1804. Visitors now see the Grade I-listed tower and west wall standing among modern offices. The tower is 27 metres high and battered, wider at the base than the top. A ship-shaped vane from St Mildred Poultry crowns the top, and a clock installed after 1972 marks the time. The surviving pediment once framed a window, and the churchyard remains as a quiet courtyard surrounded by glass and stone.