St Helen's Bishopsgate
St Helen's Bishopsgate is one of the most remarkable and historically layered medieval churches in the City of London, sometimes called the "Westminster Abbey of the City" for the extraordinary concentration of monuments and tombs it contains within a relatively modest footprint. It stands on Bishopsgate, just a short distance from Liverpool Street station, and represents one of the rare survivals of pre-Fire London ecclesiastical architecture, having escaped both the Great Fire of 1666 and the bombing raids of the Second World War — though not without later damage and subsequent restoration. For anyone with an interest in medieval England, the history of the City's merchant classes, or simply beautiful and quietly extraordinary spaces, it rewards a visit enormously.
The origins of the church stretch back to the twelfth century, when a Benedictine nunnery was founded here around 1210 by William fitz William, a wealthy alderman. The nuns built their own church alongside the existing parish church dedicated to St Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine, and the two structures ran parallel to one another, sharing a wall. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the nunnery was suppressed in 1538, and the nuns' church was merged with the parish church, which is why the current building has an unusually wide and slightly asymmetrical nave — the two parallel churches were combined into one. This double-nave arrangement is one of the most distinctive features of the building and a direct consequence of its peculiar monastic and parochial dual history.
The interior is densely populated with some of the finest medieval and Elizabethan funerary monuments in all of England, many of them moved here from other churches over the centuries for safekeeping or consolidation. Among those buried or commemorated here is Sir Thomas Gresham, the financier who founded the Royal Exchange and whose family was one of the most powerful merchant dynasties of Tudor London. There are also monuments to Sir Julius Caesar, the judge and Master of the Rolls, and to Sir William Pickering, a diplomat and rumoured suitor of Queen Elizabeth I. The church essentially functions as a stone chronicle of the wealthy merchant and professional class that made the City of London so powerful in the late medieval and early modern periods.
Physically, the church is a thing of quiet beauty and surprising spaciousness. Approached from Bishopsgate, it sits slightly back from the main road, tucked behind other buildings and reached through a small courtyard that filters out some of the surrounding noise. The exterior is of ragstone and flint, weathered and undemonstrative in the way of many City churches. Stepping inside, however, the effect is immediately striking: the double nave opens up in a way that few medieval church interiors do, and the light falls in a soft, diffuse manner across the honey-coloured stone and the ranks of elaborate monuments. The church is relatively quiet even by City standards, and has a contemplative atmosphere that is at odds with the financial district humming just outside its doors.
The surrounding area is very much the heart of the modern City of London. To the east and south are the gleaming towers of the financial district, including the nearby "Gherkin" (30 St Mary Axe) and the broader cluster of skyscrapers that has grown up around it. The contrast between the ancient church and this contemporary skyline is one of the most vivid juxtapositions London offers. Liverpool Street station and its vast concourse are only a short walk to the north, making access extremely straightforward. Leadenhall Market, another significant Victorian and medieval survival, is within comfortable walking distance to the south, as are the remains of the Roman city wall.
The church suffered significant damage during the IRA bombings of Bishopsgate in 1993, when a truck bomb detonated on the street nearby and caused considerable damage to the building's structure and its medieval stained glass. The subsequent restoration, completed in the 1990s, was extensive and included work by the architect Quinlan Terry, who controversially introduced new classical furnishings and rearranged the interior to make it more suitable for regular evangelical congregation use. The current congregation, St Helen's Bishopsgate, is one of the largest and most prominent evangelical Anglican churches in Britain and attracts worshippers from across London, particularly young professionals working in the City.
Visiting is possible at various times throughout the week, and the church runs regular tours and welcomes visitors with a genuine interest in the history of the building. The best time to visit is on a weekday morning or early afternoon when the building is quieter and the light is at its best inside. Being in a working church with a large active congregation means that services and events take place regularly, so it is worth checking the church's website before visiting to ensure the building is open for tourists. There is no admission charge, though donations are warmly welcomed. The nearest underground stations are Liverpool Street on the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines, as well as Aldgate on the Circle and Metropolitan lines, making it one of the most accessible churches in London.
One of the more remarkable hidden details of the building is the so-called "Crosby Hall" connection: the church was adjacent to Crosby Place, the medieval mansion of Sir John Crosby, a wealthy merchant who died in 1475, and his elaborate canopied tomb remains one of the finest in the church. The mansion itself was eventually dismantled and its great hall relocated to Chelsea in the early twentieth century, but the monument to Crosby remains here, a tangible connection to one of the grandest private residences of medieval London. The church also retains a rare medieval wooden door from around 1300, considered one of the oldest surviving examples of domestic woodwork in any London church, and a beautiful array of brasses set into the floor that visitors can easily overlook if they are not looking down.