St. Olave's School Organ

At St Olave’s we are very fortunate to have an organ in our Great Hall. The console was built by Peter Collins in 1988 and incorporates pipework from the school’s former site in Tooley Street.

It is a relatively rare thing now that a state school can boast such an asset, which is still such an integral part of our school’s daily life, as well as of its rich heritage. Tuning the many pipes is an entire afternoon's work and over the recent summer the organ needed special attention to repair a wind-leak in the bellows and restore the instrument back to full health.

It is exciting to be able to offer organ lessons to Olavians, some of whom lead the musical contributions to our weekly programme of collective worship with organ repertoire and accompaniments to hymn-singing. Over recent years, a number of students have prepared for top practical grades and diplomas on the instrument; an elite few have even taken up organ scholarships in their respective universities, including Cambridge.

Currently, there are 10 organists learning with Mr Blew, our visiting teacher, including Year 9 student Harvey and Year 12 student Yiming.