St Helen's Bishopsgate

St Helen's Bishopsgate
St Helen's Bishopsgate pictured in 2006
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Conservative evangelical
Website	st-helens.org.uk
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I listed building
Administration
Diocese	London
Clergy
Rector	The Revd William Taylor

St Helen's Bishopsgate is a large conservative evangelical Anglican church located off Bishopsgate in London.

It is the largest surviving parish church in the City of London and it contains more monuments than any other church in Greater London except Westminster Abbey, hence it is sometimes referred to as the "Westminster Abbey of the City".

It was the parish church of William Shakespeare when he lived in the area in the 1590s. In 1608, Sir Alberico Gentili, the founder of the science of international law, was buried in the church.

The church of St Helen dates from the 12th century and a priory of Benedictine nuns was founded there in 1210. It is unusual in that it was designed with two parallel naves, giving it a wide interior. Until the dissolution of the priory in 1538, the church was divided in two by a partition running from east to west, the northern half serving the nuns and the southern the parishioners. It is the only building from a nunnery to survive in the City of London.

The priory had extensive monastic buildings; its hall was later used by the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers until its demolition in 1799. A crypt extended north from the church, under the hall.

In the 17th century two Classical doorcases were added to the otherwise Gothic church. In 1874 the parish was united with that of St Martin Outwich when the latter's church was demolished, and the first incumbent of the new parish was John Bathurst Deane. St Helen's church was heavily restored by John Loughborough Pearson in 1891–3, and reopened on St John the Baptist's Day in 1893 by the Bishop of London, Frederick Temple.