It is situated on Priory Street between the junction with East Hill and St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in the city centre.

[2] At the end of the eighteenth century, the Roman Catholic community in Colchester consisted of exiles from the French Revolution.

In 1814, a French priest, Fr Amand Benard, served the community and the local garrison.

[2] The site for the present church was donated by James Hoy, a farmer from Stoke-by-Nayland.

On 3 March 1837, the foundation stone for the church was laid by the Vicar Apostolic of the London District, Thomas Griffiths.

He designed the church in the Romanesque Revival style reminiscent of the nearby ruins of St Botolph's Priory.

Scoles later used a similar plan when he designed St John the Evangelist Church in Islington four years later.

Saint Helen was reported to have been born in Colchester by local historical accounts.

[3] In the 1850s, during the Crimean War the civilians in the congregation were outnumbered by the locally garrisoned Catholic soldiers.