Tooley Street - St Olave

St Olave

The earliest name for the street recorded in the Rolls is the neutral regio vicio i.e. 'royal street' meaning a public highway. In the Agas map of ca 1560 it is shown as 'Barms Street', i.e. street to Bermondsey; in the Stuart period it was referred to as 'Short Southwark' to differentiate it from 'Long Southwark' (the present Borough High Street). The later 'Tooley' designation is a corruption of the original Church of St Olave and the transformation can be seen on maps of the area from that of 'Ralph Agas', through 'Braun and Hozenburg' and John Roque and later which are labelling the church of that name; 'Synt Toulus', 'Toulas', 'Toolis', 'Toolies'. The church takes its name from the Norwegian King Olaf who was an ally of Æthelred the Unready and attacked Cnut's forces occupying London Bridge in 1013. The earliest reference to the church is in the Southwark entry in Domesday Book of 1086. The church was a little to the east of London Bridge of the period. The church was demolished in 1926 for the headquarters of the Hay's Wharf Company, "St Olaf House", an office block built 1929-31 by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887–1959) in Art Deco style. This has a legend and mural depiction of the Saint. The termination of the street is not actually at the junction with Borough High Street, as assumed, for that part of the highway is actually Duke Street Hill. Tooley Street actually joins Montague Close under the arch of London Bridge a little to the north of this.