The Church is open for prayer and contemplation
every weekday from 8am to 6pm and there is, adjacent, a wonderful courtyard for
peace and relaxation. As the church is in the City of London services are held
during the week. The main service, Monday through Friday, is at 1215hrs. There
is also a sung mass on Sunday at 1100hrs.
The church's website (visit link)
tells us of the history of the church:
"The Parish of St Vedast is known from the
12th century, and the church is traditionally claimed to have been established
by 1170.
It has been altered, enlarged and restored
many times and probably rebuilt at least twice, the last time by Christopher
Wren, after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Having been completely burnt out
during the Blitz of World War II, the church was restored under the direction of
its Rector, Canon Mortlock, and a very influential Parochial Church Council that
included Poet Laureate John Betjeman and master organ builder, Noel Mander.
The church is dedicated to a French saint,
little known in Britain, who was Bishop of Arras in northern Gaul around the
turn of the 6th century. Vedast, who was called in Latin, Vedastus; in Norman,
Vaast; in Walloon, Waast; and in French, Gaston, helped to restore the Christian
Church in the region after decades of destruction by invading barbarians during
the late Roman empire and to convert Clovis, the Frankish king. Remembered for
his charity, meekness and patience, he is buried at Arras cathedral.
His name in England has been corrupted from
St Vaast, by way of Vastes, Fastes, Faster, Fauster and Forster to Foster, the
name of the lane at the front of the church, and the reason that the official
designation of the church is St Vedast-alias-Foster. St Vedast was venerated in
particular by the Augustinian priors in the 12th century, and they may be
responsible for the foundation of the few churches dedicated to him. Only one
other church in England is currently dedicated to St Vedast, in Tathwell,
Lincolnshire, a third parish in Norwich now being remembered only in a street
name.
Some of the works and legends of St Vedast
are celebrated in the stained glass windows of the church.
It has been suggested that the original
church of St Vedast may have been founded by the Flemish community in London in
the 12th or 13th century, possibly by a Flemish ancestor of Ralph d’Arras, who
was the Sheriff of London in 1276.
The first church was probably quite small,
but additions were made through the centuries. A chapel dedicated to St Dunstan
was added in the 15th century, and other altars were added in the 16th century
to Mary and to St Nicholas. By 1603, Stow in his Survey of London described St
Vedast as ‘a fair church, lately rebuilt’.
Although no complete or accurate account
survives for this early church, evidence of its construction can still be seen
in the south wall of the church externally. Evidence of earlier openings for
doors and windows, as well as the medieval stonework has been examined by
archaeological survey and reported in London Archaeologist.
Reformation, fire and rebuilding
In 1614, St Vedast was enlarged by 20 feet
thanks to a gift from the adjacent Saddlers’ company, and ‘beautified’ according
to Stow’s Survey.
In 1635 the then Rector, James Batty,
petitioned the Archbishop that a rail might be set up around the communion table
as there are many “disorders and undecencies” among the parishioners when
receiving the Blessed Sacrament. For his loyalty to King Charles I, Batty was
“sequestered, plundered, forced to flee, and died” in 1642.
How the church may have suffered during the
Civil Wars of the mid 17th century is unrecorded, but given that the
Parliamentarian kept horses stabled in the chancel of nearby St Paul’s
Cathedral, it is likely to have been badly affected. The current Rectors’ Board
lists the years between 1643 and 1661 as under Foulke Bellers, a ‘Commonwealth
Intruder’.
The disastrous Great Fire that swept through
the City in September 1666 reached St Vedast on the third day. Afterwards, it
was thought that although the roof, pews, pulpit and other fittings had been
destroyed, the church could be repaired satisfactorily. It was therefore omitted
from the original list of 50 churches to be rebuilt by Christopher Wren. By the
1690s, however, structural flaws must have become significant enough that
rebuilding was begun. Records of those responsible for the detailed design and
construction of the church are somewhat sketchy. Other than Wren, it is possible
that Robert Hooke and/or Nicholas Hawksmoor were involved (the steeple is said
to be particularly Hawksmoor-like), and master mason Edward Strong had been paid
£3106:14:7 by the time the church was completed in 1699. He was responsible for
the cherubs that grace the west front and bell tower, and for the dove in glory
sculpture now situated at the east end of the south aisle.
18th and 19th centuries
Many of the minor changes that affected the
church through the 18th century may not have been recorded, but we know that an
organ was installed in 1773, and that heating was first introduced in 1790 –
open stoves that were to be replaced in 1807 by a more satisfactory double
fronted one.
Thomas Pelham Dale, Rector from 1847 to
1882, fell foul of the Public Worship Regulations Act of 1874 and was prosecuted
for “ritualistic practices”. Although he gave up the practices in question for a
time, he was brought before a court in 1880 and, for contempt, sent to Holloway
prison.
The greatest change to the building in the
19th century was perhaps to the fenestration. A square headed window was removed
in 1848 from the east end, along with the Dove in Glory sculpture by Strong
above it. Twelve new stained glass windows were introduced in 1884, making the
church much darker. Internal adjustments to pews, screens, pulpit and altar
rails were made shortly afterwards.
Rebuilding after the Blitz
On 29th December 1940, London was attacked
by German air raids that dropped some 24,000 high explosive bombs and 100,000
incendiaries, mostly in the City. Although the Cathedral itself survived thanks
to hundreds of volunteer firefighters, much of the area around St Paul’s was
utterly destroyed.
As after the Great Fire of 1666, St Vedast
was gutted and left a burnt out shell, with roof, pews, pulpit and fittings all
ruined. As the structure of the church and its tower were deemed to be safe,
plans to restore the church began in 1947. The work itself only began in 1953,
under the auspices of its new Rector, Canon Mortlock, and the architect Stephen
Dykes Bower. The post war Parochial Church Council that oversaw the work
included Poet Laureate and conservation champion John Betjeman and the great
organ builder Noel Mander.
To make the church a more appropriate layout
for smaller 20th century congregations, Dykes Bower introduced collegiate style
seating, and screened off the south aisle. New false walls were constructed
within the east and south walls to make the church more rectangular, enabling a
strong black and white patterned terrazzo floor to be laid. The ceiling was
constructed to a pattern near that of the Wren original and finished with gold
leaf and aluminium, donated by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.
An adjacent plot along Foster Lane to the
north, formerly the location of the Fountain pub, was purchased for the
construction of a new Rectory, and a small secluded courtyard built between this
Rectory and the former parish school (now the parish hall of St Vedast).
Details of church, courtyard, features and fittings – many of which originally
graced other churches in the City in earlier centuries – can be found in the
church section of this website where you can take a virtual tour.
The United Parishes
Since the Great Fire of 1666, St Vedast has
been accumulating adjacent parishes as churches have disappeared, either through
fire, war or development.
The current list of thirteen other parishes
now under the auspices of St Vedast is as follows:
- St Alban Wood Street – dating back to
Saxon times, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren
in the Gothic style, only to be bombed in WWII. Only its tower remains.
- St Anne and St Agnes – a medieval
foundation just at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street, the
church was rebuilt by Wren after being burnt down in the Great Fire. It was
largely rebuilt after WWII to Wren’s original plans.
- St Lawrence Jewry – possibly founded as
early as the 10th century, and now the Guild Church of the City of London
Corporation. Wren’s post-Great Fire church was destroyed in the Blitz and
restored by Cecil Brown, reopening in 1957.
- St Mary Aldermanbury – what was left of
this Wren church after WWII was demolished and reconstructed at Westminster
College in Fulton Missouri. The foundations of the church are planted as a
garden.
- St Michael-le-Querne – the medieval
church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. The only evidence of
its existence is a boundary marker on the St Paul’s Choir School building.
- St Matthew Friday Street – the church
formerly stood in the lane of Cheapside where fishmongers sold their goods
on Fridays. Although rebuilt by Wren after the 1666 fire, it was demolished
for redevelopment in the 19th century.
- St Peter Chepe – the churchyard of St
Peter’s is now a garden in Wood Street, just off Cheapside, featuring a fine
200 year old plane tree. The church was not rebuilt after the Great Fire.
- St Olave Silver Street – both church
and street are now gone, the church in the Great Fire and the street in post
war redevelopment. An open space has an inscribed stone marking the church’s
destruction.
- St Michael Wood Street – having been
rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire, the church was demolished in 1894 when
the parish was united with St Alban Wood Street. Nothing remains of the
church.
- St Mary Staining – burnt down in the
Great Fire, the church was not rebuilt. The site of church and churchyard
now forms an attractive garden beside the Pewterers’ Company hall.
- St Mary Magdalene Milk Street – a small
church dating back to the 12th century, it was not rebuilt after the Great
Fire, and the site was later occupied by the City of London School.
- St John Zachary – the church, which
stood opposite the Goldsmith’s Hall at the junction of Gresham Street and
Noble Street where there is now an attractive garden, was not rebuilt after
1666. The parish was united with that of St Anne and St Agnes, and
consequently later united with St Vedast.
- St Michael Bassishaw – the church
perished in the Great Fire and was rebuilt by Wren. It was eventually
demolished in 1900 as nearby excavations made its foundations unsafe."
The church is a Grade I listed building and the entry, at the English Heritage
website (visit
link), tells us:
"1670-73 by Wren. Tower 1697. Interior burnt
in World War II and rebuilt in near facsimile. Rectangular body with south aisle
and clerestory. Integral south-west tower. Plain west front of Portland stone
with central doorway, 2 arched windows above and central opening with mullions
and transoms. Parapet to roof which is repeated on south side where main
wallings is of rubble or red brick. East elevation rendered, with 3 arched
windows and circular opening in central attic. Portland stone tower with arched
and circular openings and particularly fine stone steeple. Interior has coved
ceiling west gallery and south arcade now partly obscured by new fittings.
Pulpit, font and cover of apparently late C17 date."