| St Helen's Bishopsgate | |
|---|---|
 St Helen's Bishopsgate pictured in 2006 | |
 | |
| Location | London, EC3 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholicism |
| Churchmanship | Conservative Evangelical |
| Website | st-helens.org.uk |
| History | |
| Status | Parish Church |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed building |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | London |
| Parish | St Helen's Bishopsgate with St Andrew Undershaft and St Ethelburga Bishopsgate and St Martin Outwich and St Mary Axe |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | The Revd William Taylor |
St Helen's Bishopsgate is an 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. Several notable figures are buried there, 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.[1][2] It was one of only a few churches in the City of London to survive both the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz.
Owing to parish consolidation over the years, the parish is now named "St Helen's Bishopsgate with St Andrew Undershaft and St Ethelburga Bishopsgate and St Martin Outwich and St Mary Axe". The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors are the patrons of the benefice.[3]
Today, it is home to a large congregation in the conservative evangelical tradition with a ministry to city workers, families, students and young professionals. Four English-speaking (and one Mandarin-speaking) church services take place each Sunday, as well as a number of midweek talks and small group Bible studies.
The nearby churches St Andrew Undershaft and St Peter upon Cornhill are also administered by St Helen's.
- ^ Hales 1904, pp. 401–402.
- ^ "In Search of Shakespeare. Bishopsgate". PBS. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
- ^ Details of the history of St Helen's and the other churches in this benefice (St Andrew, St Martin Outwich etc) in the 17th century can be found in Lee Gatiss, The Tragedy of 1662: The Ejection and Persecution of the Puritans. Gatiss Archived 2007-09-11 at the Wayback Machine