The nickname of this church is unique to Moscow: the name 'Red Bell' is not found anywhere else. These words are all that remains of one of the most beautiful bell chimes in the capital.

Typically, churches were first built of wood and then of stone. However, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 'Red Bell', first mentioned in 1561, was built of stone from the start, which is rare for Moscow. Its founder was merchant Grigory Tverdikov. By the 16th century, the name 'Nikola Red Bell' appeared, indicating the special beauty of the bell chime. Over time, the church's bell set was expanded. In the mid-17th century, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich gifted the church a bell from 1573 with foreign inscriptions and an image of three lilies, a trophy from the Russo-Polish war for Ukraine. The authorities' attention to the church was also shown in the transfer of an iconostasis created by Ukrainian masters and icons by the famous Simon Ushakov.

An image of the old Nikolskaya church has survived: a stone square base with an eight-pitched roof and one dome, walls with narrow windows, and a powerful octagonal bell tower attached to the west. Despite its antiquity, the building was demolished in 1858 to make way for a new church. The funds for construction were provided by merchant Polyakov, and the project was developed by architects A.M. Shestakov and N.I. Kozlovsky. The church was built in the neo-Russian style, which had not yet reached its peak in the 1850s. The facades are modestly decorated, the lower part of the building is smoothly plastered and marked by three arches. The octagonal tent-like bell tower with two rows of sound windows above the entrance on the west side and five bulbous domes with drums adorned with kokoshniks are features of the neo-Russian style.

In 1927, services in the Nikolskaya church ceased. Recognized as 'low-value', it was slated for demolition but survived. The interior decoration was completely lost, but the bell from 1573 was preserved and transferred to a museum in Kolomenskoye. The space of the church was divided into several floors, where various state institutions were located. In the 1960s, an electric substation was installed inside.

Later, the church was surrounded by a new complex of buildings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, to which the church building was attached. Since 1991, the process of transferring the church to the community of believers began, but regular services only started in 1996. For many years, the domes remained rusted, the walls were cracked, and crosses were only on the bell tower and the central dome. However, restoration work is gradually returning the church to its historical appearance. Today, the four side domes are once again crowned with crosses.