Disclaimer: I do not own the places or the TV show behind them.
AN: Before anyone asks, I checked my facts. The places/characters/etc. are either canon or made up because there is no canon.
Cairo
The Cairo Sanctuary is more research institute than a haven for Abnormals. It starts as nothing more than a small house on the outskirts of downtown, a subsection of the Department of Antiquities, and run by an old eccentric that Helen has never actually met. But he enjoys his research and if there is one thing Egypt is known for it is a history of oddity. From books commissioned by Napoleon through the tomb paintings and endless walls of hieroglyphics, Egypt has a great deal of evidence of Abnormal activity.
There are few enough Abnormals to look after in the region now and the Cairo Sanctuary remains but a small outpost in a wider network of flourishing havens, and the current head of house, Pili manages it well.
New Delhi/Mumbai
Mumbai is the first Sanctuary in India, but the one in New Delhi follows only a few years after. It's actually started by the head of the Mumbai division, who has his own reasons for leaving south-west India and heading up into the northern reaches. It makes sense, however, when he explains it to Helen. Northern India and the lands around it are full of Abnormals, hiding away in an area of the world not frequented by people and where the locals do not look too closely at that which is different.
Within five years the New Delhi Sanctuary has a larger number of Abnormals enclosed in its walls than Mumbai. It takes some time to reorganise things and Helen spends the better part of the 1980s running interference between Mumbai's old head and new until the settle on an agreement, of sorts. Mumbai becomes a port of unloading and a research institute, and New Delhi expands to accept a larger number of Abnormals from across Asia and the Middle East.
New York
New York is Helen's second Sanctuary. It comes into existence during the years of the First World War, when America is looking outside of its borders more than within and when the public is far more concerned with what is happening in Europe than in their own neighbourhoods. Helen's partners in America take full advantage of the situation and by the time the American government gets the briefest hint that something monumental is happening under their noses, the New York house is already thriving on the bay across from the Statue of Liberty.
It is Helen and not the current head of house, a Dr. Gregory Iskanish, who is charged with placating the Bureau of Investigation. But she has already had years of practice with the British government and Helen is well aware that with their support – however under the table it is – she has the upper hand. And the current Bureau Chief, Mr. Bielaski, has more than half a brain and a decidedly fresh outlook on the future. They come to a compromise, of sorts, at least so far as Mr. Bielaski promises that so long as public remains unaware of the Sanctuary's presence, so too will they remain off the Bureau's danger list.
It's 1948 before the United States government turns over a single penny to aid with the upkeep of the place.
Sydney
The Australian Sanctuary is one of the youngest. As a large island surrounded by open sea, the place has never attracted a large variety of Abnormals. But in the 1800s it also becomes a good place to hide. But it isn't until the end of the twentieth century that the Network develops a single reliable contact in the area from which to establish a Sanctuary.
Its beginning comes about in a most unusual way. One of the staff members at the London Sanctuary, who has been with them for nigh on four decades announces in 1987 that she is retiring and moving to Australia, the reason for which is that her son has married an Australian woman and refuses to return to England himself. If she wants to see her grandchildren she has to be the one to move.
A year later, James receives a letter from Janice explaining that retirement has not at all suited her and that she has been spending her time (when she is not playing with her grandchildren) helping the underground movement of Abnormals that has existed for over a century. Within two years Janice is head of house of the Sydney Sanctuary, a small but thriving community in the west district.
Helen 'vacations' in Australia more often after that.
Moscow
James is the one to suggest Russia as a location. It is 1933 and the New York Sanctuary is thriving and they are beginning to look again at establishing another haven. James has always been partial to Eastern Europe and so Helen finally relents. She has her own ideas of where the next location should be and Eastern Europe is not on the list, but it's an argument that has been going on between them for more than two decades and there is no winner.
The two of them make a trip to St. Petersburg, where they have contacts already. It is clear from the beginning that no one who is already involved in the network in Russia has any interest in taking on the monumental task of beginning another Sanctuary.
James and Helen spend a month touring locations in the area and finally conclude that St. Petersburg will not work. They head to Moscow instead and stumble upon the perfect place; an old estate in an area of the city where people might not be too concerned with what their neighbours are up to. In hindsight, the beginning of the Moscow Sanctuary is well-timed. Before the place is fully up and running and mere months after the new head – Dr. Demitri Yezhov – has taken up residence, the Great Purge begins. The people of Russia have a great many things to deal with that do not include worries as to the activities happening at an estate that has been empty for years. The Sanctuary hunkers down to ride out the political wave and then the Second World War, the Cold War and finally the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Tokyo
The destruction of the Japan Sanctuary by the Cabal comes as a hard blow to Helen. It is one of the Sanctuaries that she had a direct hand in starting and the thought that is has been destroyed beyond saving is yet another loss for her to suffer. She knows that they will need a replacement in the area sometime soon, though perhaps not on the island. The head of house is dead, there are Abnormal losses as well – the rest of promptly crated up by the remaining staff for transfer to Old City – and the building is literally in ruins.
Tokyo had been one of the easiest Sanctuaries to begin. It was the only one that was funded by the government from the start, though just as quietly as the British Crown has funded others. Within a few short years it was a thriving location serving all of eastern Asia and most of the islands as well, before Sydney was founded.
Helen wishes for nothing more than that James were still there to help her rebuild, but he is gone and Helen is left to pick up the pieces of staff, Abnormals and contacts alike. It takes time to rebuild from scratch, but it is necessary.
Beijing
In the 1990s Helen marks each Sanctuary on a map of the world and decides that there are a few areas that are severely in need of help. Africa is one, South America another, and China a third. In a country with so large a population it provides an excellent hiding place for many Abnormals, far more than can be helped by the Tokyo Sanctuary alone.
Helen is fond of Beijing. She appoints one of her contacts in the area as head. A young man and newly graduated Doctorate, Ark-Fong Li, takes over the task with relish. He has a good head on his shoulders and Helen has no doubt he will run the place well. After the destruction of Tokyo, Helen finds just was Dr. Li is capable of and is more than grateful for his assistance in rebuilding Tokyo. He makes up for the loss of James, at least somewhat.
Between Dr. Li and Onryuji, Tokyo is soon flourishing once more, but no one forgets the horror of the Cabal or the death of Dr. Hiromara.
Rio de Janeiro
Rio is more of an accident than anything. Helen is there in 1987, her first true trip after Ashley's birth and something of a vacation. At least, this is what she has told the other heads of house and especially James. It is a relaxing enough place and certainly an escape from her daily routine which is still just as much picking up stray toys, feedings, and running around after quick little legs as it is paperwork, research and management. She has left Ashley in the care of her old friend and doesn't need to spare a moment of worry that the child will be safe and happy until her mother returns.
South America nearly throngs with Abnormals, many of which are unique to the habitat of the continent and many of which have already proved useful in Helen's research. Still, it is difficult enough capturing the dangerous ones and even the non-dangerous ones still need shipping back to Old City or New York, depending on which ocean is nearer. They still avoid airplanes more often than not, because it attracts too much attention. Helen has been contemplating purchasing a private jet for years.
On this particular hunt Helen is accompanied by Dr. Carlos Guerrero, a rather new addition to the Sanctuary team but one that she has every confidence in. They are not very far outside of Rio proper, on the trail of an Abnormal that is neither dangerous nor particularly intelligent by all accounts and certainly needs their help.
'I've been considering something,' Carlos tells her.
'Yes?' Helen asks, focus clearly on the task at hand.
'A Sanctuary here, perhaps in Rio, would be very useful, no?'
Helen's attention abruptly shifts and she looks at Carlos with a smile. 'Are you offering something?'
'Entirely,' he responds.
Their very difficult to find Abnormal becomes the first guest at the Rio Sanctuary.
Lagos
They decide on Lagos for practical reasons. It is one of the largest cities in Africa and the fastest growing. It is a coastal city and provides access to shipping with ease. It is also far enough away from Cairo to be of use, without impinging on anyone's territory, putting aside that Cairo is a research centre and not a haven as the other Sanctuaries are.
It is also a city where black market trade is a pastime as much as it is a vice. The old Yoruban history of the area is full of accounts of Abnormals as well and there is no secret to the fact that the city is a great hiding place. So few amongst so many.
Helen has never actually been to Nigeria, but when the suggestion is made it doesn't seem to take much thought. There are contacts enough in the area to form a local network and property is not hard to come by either. Helen makes the trip down with James in a rented jet, since James can hardly travel economy and Helen would prefer to fly under the radar anyways.
Her first impression of Lagos is noise and confusion, very similar in many ways to Mumbai or Beijing, but both are useful things in the tracking and housing of Abnormals.
They find a likely location of Iddo Island, far enough from seemingly everything that an enclave of Abnormals may go unnoticed. It also has the advantage of a railway terminal that easily leads onto the mainland and the rest of Africa. Sanctuary movements can go unnoticed and they will not be spied upon by the wealthy individuals who inhabit the other islands nearby. It is a formula for success that the Sanctuary Network has perfected over the decades and it's working.
Berlin
Berlin became a Sanctuary before Moscow did. It was a turbulent place to start a location, as James had cautioned at the beginning, but like Russia it was also a place where underground activity was a norm for the populace and no one looked too closely at their neighbours.
Unlike the others though, they built this one entirely underground in an old commercial area of the city. It gave the staff a bit more leeway than they would have had in a residential area and since the commercial and industrial sections of Old Berlin were nearly swarming with Abnormal activity, it made tracking their targets easier.
Within three years after the Sanctuary has begun, records of Abnormal killings in the city decrease drastically and Helen tries not to notice the almost smug look on James' face as being the one to suggest it in the first place.
Cape Town
Cape Town becomes the failed experiment. Helen tries not to think about it, because it only lasted for eight months. The reason is probably that its creation was owed entirely to the location being a large empty area of the world on a map which Helen decided needed to be filled. There was little forethought that actually went it to the planning. Helen is unchallenged head of the entire Network, even if James is her shadow, and when she puts a plan forth it is unlikely to be challenged. And there is no doubt that an outpost in South Africa might be of use, at least as a shipping stop between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.
The head of house that Helen appoints soon makes a mess of things and the local government catches wind of what is going on in their midst. The whole thing unravels in a matter of weeks and with a police investigation in the works, Helen decides it is best if no member of the Network ever sets foot in South Africa again. At least not for a few decades.
London
London is the pride and joy of Helen's Network. It is also James' baby in a way it was never Helen's, despite her father's name as creator. James is content to spend his days pretending it is still 1895 and the other staff are happy to let him do so. Helen leaves him to it most days, and after the Second World War she has no qualms about leaving it to him entirely.
London has always been the epicentre of research for the entire Network and it continues to be so even after Helen leaves. The place functions well because it has had so much practice. It is also a training ground for new staff members, many of whom enjoy a year or two in London before they move on to other Sanctuaries around the world. James and Helen have always enjoyed a protégée or two to train in the confines of the stone walls.
After the Cabal and the ensuing tragedies, Declan takes over James' role as head of house with an ease that somewhat riles Helen. James should not be so easy to replace, but Declan has been his student for years and James has been training him for this moment one way or another. None of them ever thought it would be so soon. Declan has a good head on his shoulders, though and in many ways he reminds Helen of James. They get along well enough and Declan's dedication to his former boss rolls over into his support of Helen, for which she is most grateful.
Old City
Helen arrives in Vancouver in 1947 to start a west coast Sanctuary. In truth she is running away from the horrors of another war and looking to start again. New York is already a thriving haven, but the west coast is lacking and Helen finds Canada a pleasant enough place to live. The weather leaves much to be desired for the locals, but it reminds Helen of London and it is easy enough to settle down there.
The old cathedral, already falling into ruins, provides the perfect location as well. It has all the markings of a good place to start and Helen couldn't care less that the nave supports are crumbling and half the ceiling is starting to collapse. The rest of the building is in better shape and there is room enough on the property to expand, as they did in London.
It needs work, though, but it keeps her occupied and her hands full and Helen has found that these are the things that get her through her day and on to the next one.
Old City is her baby as much as London is James' and she is proud of what she makes it to be, slowly but surely. James is impressed too and he says as much when he visits in 1955, marvelling at the lifts that make transportation within the new wing easier and almost shocked that she has incorporated her father's designs into the Abnormal levels of the place. He tells her as much and Helen cannot help beaming with pride, imagining (hoping) her father would tell her the same thing, were he there.