Only the mainly C14 west façade, largely renewed, can be seen, but the nave and much of the chancel probably go back to the C11.  It is now a bookshop.

St Olave, the oldest surviving church in the city centre, had the smallest parish (Dallaway I p187).  The dedication suggests a Scandinavian link and moreover that it was not founded before the mid-C11 - St Olaf, King of Norway was converted to Christianity and then killed in 1030.  The founders were probably Scandinavian merchants – Ketel Esterman, a Nordic name, is known to have owned some houses nearby (Millward and Robinson p79).  The parish of St Martin was united with St Olave in 1899.

The flint west front is wedged between other buildings, and the detail, C14 in style but dating from the C19, gives little idea of the age of the fabric.  However, a narrow round-headed south doorway is visible inside.  Much of it is plastered, but the original voussoirs can be made out under modern paint.  From the dimensions which are best seen on an engraving of c1851 (I p220), this was post-Conquest C11 and is thus likely to provide the date of the nave.  The chancel is deflected to the north and though altered, probably retains its original dimensions of the same date.  In 1851, a round-headed niche of Roman brick was found in the east wall (1 p218) which, though not preserved, was probably also C11.
 
C14 alterations included trefoil-headed side lancets in the chancel, and the former east window (VCH 3 p162).  Others were the weathered angel corbels at each base of the west gable and the small, shingled bell-turret and broach spirelet, with supporting buttresses.

After the Reformation, the west doorway and window were replaced by ‘debased features’ (1 p225).  In turn, these were replaced in 1851-52 as part of a restoration by an unknown architect.  The replacements are C14 in style (a sensible surmise in view of the other detail of this date) and the chancel arch and the roofs were replaced.  At the same time the nave was heightened by 5 feet, the east wall was rebuilt (ibid) and an undercroft, probably a burial vault, was found.  In 1956 after closure, most fittings were removed when it was adapted by H Sherwood (CCC file) as a Christian bookshop, as it remains (the font is now at Elsted).  The C19 east window was replaced by the present three lancets.

Fittings

Aumbry: (By blocked north doorway) Quite an elaborate C14 example with a cusped ogee-head, shafts, foliage capitals and head-stops.
Monuments: Various, some from St Martin’s.
Piscina: (South wall of nave) C14 ogee-headed. It is a handsome piece, which has probably been moved, for it is too high.

Source

1. P Freeman: On some Antiquities lately discovered in St Olave’s church, Chichester, SAC 5 (1852) pp213-28

Plan

Measured plan in VCH 3 p162