page_title: St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken by E A Sparks, June 2005. Used by permission.
context_page_description: St Helen's Bishopsgate is a large conservative evangelical Anglican church in London. It is located in Great St Helen's, off Bishopsgate.
  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, prominent jurist Sir Alberico Gentili was buried in the church.
context_section_description: The church of St Helen dates from the 13th 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 1891–1893,  and reopened on St John the Baptist's Day in 1893 by the Bishop of London, Frederick Temple.
  St Helen's was one of only a few City of London churches to survive both the Great Fire of London of 1666 and the Blitz during World War II. In 1992 and 1993, however, the church was badly damaged by two IRA bombs that were set off nearby. The roof of the building was lifted and one of the City's largest medieval stained glass windows was shattered. The church has since been fully restored although many of the older monuments within it were entirely destroyed. The architect Quinlan Terry, an enthusiast of Georgian architecture, designed the restoration along Reformation lines.
  The natural philosopher, architect and polymath, Robert Hooke, was buried at St Helen's Bishopsgate, but the precise location of his grave is unknown.
caption: Interior of St Helen's Bishopsgate
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