St Olave's Church

St Olave’s Church in Hart Street, dubbed “St Ghastly Grim” by Charles Dickens in “The Uncommercial Traveller,” has a macabre history deeply entwined with London’s darkest hours. The church, which survived both the Great Fire and the Blitz, is most notorious for its skull-adorned gateway and the mass graves of Great Plague victims from 1665. The churchyard served as a burial ground during the plague, with bodies buried in hastily dug pits, and the gateway’s three skulls serve as a grim reminder of this devastating period.

The church has long been associated with paranormal activity, with witnesses reporting shadowy figures moving through the graveyard and the interior of the church. Many describe the overwhelming smell of decay and death that suddenly manifests, even though the church is well-maintained. Visitors have heard agonized moaning and cries for help, believed to be the echoes of plague victims in their final moments. The most disturbing reports involve apparitions of plague-stricken individuals, their bodies covered in buboes, wandering the churchyard as if searching for peace.

Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, was a regular worshipper at St Olave’s, and his wife Elizabeth is buried there. Some witnesses claim to have seen Pepys himself, dressed in period clothing, walking through the church or standing near his wife’s memorial. The combination of plague deaths, the church’s survival through multiple disasters, and its centuries of continuous worship has created an intense spiritual atmosphere. Paranormal investigators have recorded unexplained temperature drops, electromagnetic anomalies, and EVP recordings of voices speaking in 17th-century English dialects within the church walls.