By the time of Richard II's accession to the throne in 1377, large parts of the city of London and its suburbs were occupied by ecclesiastical and monastic precincts. St Paul's Cathedral was prominent in the west part of the city and the Benedictine abbey of St Peter in Westminster; near to each was a collegiate royal free chapel, St Martin le Grand in the city and St Stephen at Westminster. In the north-east part of the city lay the Benedictine nunnery of St Helen, Bishopsgate. The Cluniacs were represented by Bermondsey Priory to the south of the River Thames. The priory of St John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell was the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller in England, the head house of the English Langue (or section) of the order and the residence of the prior of England. Several monasteries belonged to the Augustinian order, including Holy Trinity Priory near Aldgate, St Bartholomew's Priory and St Bartholomew's Hospital in Smithfield, the priory and hospital of St Mary Spital to the north of Bishopsgate, and St Mary Overy Priory in Southwark, within the diocese of Winchester. Holywell Priory in Shoreditch and the Priory of St Mary at Clerkenwell were houses of Augustinian canonesses, although contemporaries sometimes confused them with Benedictine nunneries. Medieval hospitals were essentially religious institutions which cared for the sick and the poor.