St Helen’s, one of London’s finest medieval churches, has from early times been associated with City officialdom. Many of the lord mayors, aldermen, sheriffs and successful merchants and businessmen lived in the parish, and a number were buried in this church and commemorated by imposing monuments. In fact, St Helen’s exceeds all other City churches in the number and splendour of its monuments. Among the prominent persons interred here are Sir John Crosby, grocer, woolman and the builder of famous Crosby Hall; Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange and one of London’s most illustrious citizens; Martin Bond, commander of the City Trained Bands before whom Queen Elizabeth made her stirring speech at the approach of the Armada; and Sir William Pickering, Queen Elizabeth’s ambassador to Spain.
The second unique feature about St Helen’s is that it possesses two naves side by side. This unusual arrangement came about in the year 1210, during the reign of Henry III, when a priory of Benedictine nuns was founded on the property next to the original church. This new priory included a hall, hospital, dormitory, cloisters and offices. The priory church was placed next to the parish church and the nave of the latter, which was somewhat shorter, was extended to form a united west wall. The two congregations were separated by arches and a screen, but apparently the close proximity between the nuns and the ‘seculars’ created some problems. The dean and chapter of St Paul’s felt it necessary to reprove the nuns for wearing ‘ostentatious veils’ and the prioress for keeping a number of small dogs. Another warning concerned dancing and ‘revelling’, which was restricted to holidays and forbidden to ‘seculars’.
The nunnery was suppressed in 1538. All the buildings except the church were taken over by the Leathersellers Company. At this time the screen was removed so that the two naves together became part of the parish church. There was originally a crypt under the nun’s hall next to the church which had a canopied grating on the wall facing the nave so that the nuns unable to come into the church could watch mass. All the old priory buildings except the church were removed in 1799, but the ‘nun’s squint’ on the north wall remains, a curious reminder of a bygone day.
Like St Bartholomew the Great and its neighbour St Ethelburga’s, St Helen’s has the distinction of having escaped the Great Fire and gone through the blitz without major damage. Today it has a very active evangelical congregation (possibly a tradition going back to the eighteenth century when George Whitefield preached here frequently). There are particularly popular lunchtime talks for business people during the week, which were begun under the leadership of Dick Lucas who became Rector of the church in 1961.