The Church of St Vedast Alias Foster, London
This small Baroque church embodies the resilience of time and highlights the crucial need to preserve ancient churches, which are vital to the fabric of London’s historical narrative. These sacred spaces serve as guardians of the memories of the communities that have shaped the city over two millennia.
Saint Vedast is one of the rarest saints venerated in medieval London. The church dedicated to him, known as Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, likely dates back to around 1170, possibly established by merchants or Augustinians from Arras. Saint Vedast (died c. 540), also known as Vaast, Waast, or Gaston in French and Foster in English, was an influential early bishop in the Frankish realm. He was pivotal in converting Clovis, the Frankish king, and restoring the Christian Church in regions ravaged by frequent invasions. As the Bishop of Arras in northern Gaul during the 6th century, he was buried in Arras Cathedral and is remembered for his charity and meekness.
St. Vedast’s Church, though damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, was rebuilt under the supervision of Christopher Wren’s office between 1670 and 1673. This restoration retained some elements of the medieval south wall. The tower, reconstructed between 1695 and 1698, was crowned with a Baroque spire, probably designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1712, with construction overseen by Edward Strong the Younger.
Heavily damaged during the 1940s, the church underwent a significant restoration led by Stephen Dykes Bower beginning in 1953. Bower reimagined the interior in the style of a collegiate chapel, adding a plaster ceiling inspired by late seventeenth-century design. The church also incorporated furnishings from other London churches destroyed in the Blitz, including the richly carved All Hallows Bread Street pulpit and the font and cover from St Anne and St Agnes
