Saint Vedast Foster Lane or Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in

Foster Lane Foster Lane is a short street within Cheap ward, in the City of London. It is situated northeast of St Paul's Cathedral and runs southbound Gresham Street to Cheapside. "Foster" is a corruption of 'St Vedast' to whom a church on the east side ...

, in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, is dedicated to St. Vedast (Foster is an

Anglicisation Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

of the name "Vaast", as the saint is known in continental Europe), a French saint whose cult arrived in England through contacts with

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

clergy.

History

St Vedast Foster Lane Church Interior 1, London, UK - Diliff

The original church of St Vedast was founded before 1308 and was extensively repaired by 1662 on parochial initiative. NB When the book was published in 1922, only thirty-four of Wren's city churches remained. The poet Robert Herrick was baptised here in 1591. Although the church was not completely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666,Tucker, Tony (2006). ''The Visitor's Guide to the City of London Churches''. London: Friends of the City Churches. it was so badly damaged that it was included in the list of 50 or so churches that required reconstruction by the office of

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

. The main part of the church was rebuilt 1670–1673 on the old walls at a cost of £1,853, 15 s the cheapest of all Wren's City commissions. 6 d. Some parts of the medieval fabric were incorporated, most noticeably the south wall which was revealed by restoration in 1992–93. The tower, on the other hand, survived in its original state until 1694 when it was pulled down, and a new one erected (possibly on its mediaeval lower stages) in 1695–98. The three-tier spire, considered one of the most baroque of all the City spires, was added in 1709–12 at a cost of £2,958, possibly to the designs of

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...

, whose correspondence with the churchwardens also survives, but whose drawings do not. With this late completion date, it was possibly the last of Wren's city churches to be finished. The tower was built by Edward Strong the Younger, a friend of

Christopher Wren the Younger Christopher Wren (1675–1747), of Wroxall Abbey, Warwickshire was a Member of Parliament and the son of the architect Sir Christopher Wren. Life Wren was the second but first surviving son of Sir Christopher Wren and his first wife, Faith Cog ...

City of london st vedast alias foster210817 6

Wren's church was gutted a second time by firebombs during the

London blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

() of 1940 and 1941. A proposal by Sir

Hugh Casson Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect. He was also active as an interior designer, as an artist, and as a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for t ...

to leave this and several other churches as roofless ruins to serve as a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

was not implemented. The post-war restoration within the old walls and re-roofing was undertaken by

Stephen Dykes Bower Stephen Ernest Dykes Bower (18 April 1903 – 11 November 1994) was a British church architect and Gothic Revival designer best known for his work at Westminster Abbey, Bury St Edmunds Cathedral and the Chapel at Lancing College. As an architect ...

from 1953 under the new rector, Canon Charles B. Mortlock. The Parochial Church Council at the time included Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

and the organ builder

Noel Mander Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places * Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

. Dykes Bower re-ordered the interior in a collegiate chapel style with seating down each side with a side chapel in the former South aisle, and squared the old walls which were not rectangular in plan so that the altar now faces the nave squarely. He made an almost imperceptible taper in the pews and floor pattern, to give a false perspective towards the altar, making the church look longer than it is. Dykes Bower designed the fine plaster ceiling, in the style of the late seventeenth century, which is embellished with gold and varnished aluminium leaf. Fittings from other destroyed City churches, including the richly carved pulpit from

All Hallows Bread Street All Hallows Bread Street was a parish church in the Bread Street ward of the City of London, England. It stood on the east side of Bread Street, on the corner with Watling Street. First mentioned in the 13th century, the church was destroyed in ...

and the font and cover from

St Anne and St Agnes St Anne and St Agnes is a church located at Gresham Street in the City of London, near the Barbican. While St Anne's is an Anglican foundation, from 1966 to 2013 it was let to a congregation of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain. History The ...

were incorporated into the new design. Dykes Bower commissioned the

Whitefriars glass White friars are members of the Order of Carmelites. Whitefriars may also refer to: Related to Carmelites * Whitefriars, Bristol, a former Carmelite friary in Bristol, England * Whitefriars, Coventry, a former Carmelite friary in Coventry, Englan ...

windows in the East End, showing scenes from the life of St

Vedast Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint Vaast (in Flemish, Norman and Picard) or Saint Waast (also in Picard and Walloon), Saint Gaston in French, and Foster in English (died ) was an early bishop in the Frankish realm. After the victory of To ...

. These windows use opaque glass to hide tall buildings behind and to disguise the fact that the East wall is a wedge in plan. The work was completed in 1962. An

aumbry An ambry (or ''almery'', ''aumbry''; from the medieval form ''almarium'', cf. Lat. ''armārium'', "a place for keeping tools"; cf. O. Fr. ''aumoire'' and mod. armoire) is a recessed cabinet in the wall of a Christian church for storing sacred vesse ...

above the south chapel altar is by Bernard Merry. St Vedast Foster Lane Church Interior 2, London, UK - Diliff

Dykes Bower also built a small Parish Room to the North East of the church in 17th-century style and a

Georgian-style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...

rectory, adjacent to the church, on Foster Lane in 1959 – in the first floor room of which is an important mural by

Hans Feibusch Hans Nathan FeibuschFeibusch, Hans Nathan< ...

on the subject of Jacob and the Angel. A niche in the internal courtyard of the rectory contains a carved stone head of Canon Mortlock by sculptor

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produc ...

. Mortlock gave the eulogy at Epstein's funeral in 1959. The church is noted for its small but lively baroque steeple, its small secluded courtyard, stained glass, and a richly decorated ceiling. It also has a ring of six bells, cast by

Mears and Stainbank The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

in 1960. They were recast from the mixed peal (of which the earliest dated back to 1671) which were all cracked in the bombing of 1941.

Organ

The current organ was originally built by John Harris (the son of

Renatus Harris Renatus Harris (c. 1652 - 1724) was an English master organ maker in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During the period of the Commonwealth, in the mid-seventeenth century, Puritans controlled the country and o ...

) & John Byfield in 1731 for St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange. That church was demolished in 1840, and its newly built replacement, St. Bartholomew, Moor Lane housed the organ from 1841. The church was in turn demolished in 1902; the organ found its way to St. Alban-the-Martyr, Fulham, (built 1894–6) in 1904; and lastly to St. Vedast in 1959. It was restored and enlarged in 1962 by

, re-using the Harris case. It has one of the oldest soundboards still in use in the country. The previous organ was by J.W. Walker, installed at the West end of the church in 1853. It was enlarged by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd and moved to the East end in 1885. It was destroyed during the incendiary bombing on 10 May 1941. It replaced one built by Crang & Hancock in 1774.

Listed building status

The church was designated a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on 4 January 1950. The rectory was listed as a Grade II building on 15 July 1998.

Notes

External links

St Vedast-alias-Foster
from Friends of the City Churches
360° panorama inside St Vedast-alias-Foster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Vedast Foster Lane 14th-century establishments in England Church of England church buildings in the City of London Christopher Wren church buildings in London English Baroque church buildings

Grade I listed churches in the City of London Diocese of London

History

Organ

Listed building status

See also

Notes

External links