Place Name
This street occupies the site of the former Benedictine convent St Helen’s Priory which was founded sometime around 1216. It was one of the more fashionable nunneries for which medieval women would take their vows, and was a favourite of wealthy widows and unmarried daughters. It was dedicated to St Helen, the wife of the Roman emperor Constantius and the mother of Constantine who converted to Christianity in AD312. When it was closed down, the nunnery’s buildings were sold to the Leathersellers’ Company.
