St Olav's Kirke is a Grade II listed building in the Southwark local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 December 1949. Church. 5 related planning applications.

St Olav's Kirke

WRENN ID
frozen-span-shade
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Southwark
Constituency
Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP: Neil Coyle (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
6 December 1949
Type
Church
Address
St Olav's Kirke, Albion Street, SE16 7JB
OS grid reference
TQ 351 796
Coordinates
51.49936, -0.05383
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

St Olav's Kirke is a Norwegian Seamen's Church built in 1927 by John L Seaton Dahl. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and features a pantiled roof. It is designed in an 18th-century domestic style, highlighted by a Scandinavian spire on the tower above the entrance.

The layout includes a porch, an office, and a large reception hall with accommodation above. The church is located in a narrower three-bay extension to the east, with one-storey extensions to the north and south, and an apse at the gabled east end.

The exterior features a west half that is two storeys tall and five bays wide, with a swept hipped roof, overhanging eaves, and ridge stacks. The west front displays an elaborate stone doorpiece at the slightly projecting central bay, supported by Ionic columns and featuring an entablature with a broken pediment and cartouche above. The round-headed ground-floor windows and flat-headed first-floor windows have stone architraves and leaded lights. Stone quoins and a first-floor sill band add to the detailing, which is mirrored on the five bay returns of the front half of the building. The tower includes a window with a stone surround, a console bracketed cornice, and a balcony on the west face, along with swag-decorated oculi on the other faces. Above, there is a stone cornice and parapet with an urn at each corner, topped by a spire with a lantern.

The south-east extension features an entrance with a stone architrave and entablature, along with a cartouche with a mask above.

Inside, the large panelled reception hall has a fireplace on either side of the entrance and a lantern in the roof. A timber arcade leads to the church, which is a small, plain, aisleless space with a nave of three bays, an arched brace roof, and dado panelling that continues around the sanctuary in the apse extension.

Local climate

St Olav's Kirke sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 5 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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