St Vedast Foster Lane
church in City of London, UK
Saint Vedast Foster Lane or Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in Foster Lane, in the City of London, is dedicated to St. Vedast (Foster is an Anglicisation of the name "Vaast", as the saint is known in continental Europe), a French saint whose cult arrived in England through contacts with Augustinian clergy.
History
The original church of St Vedast (d. c. AD 540) was founded before 1308 and was extensively repaired by 1662 on parochial initiative. The poet Robert Herrick was baptised here in 1591.
Although the church was not completely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, 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. The main part of the church was rebuilt 1670–1673 on the old walls at a cost of £1,853, 15s and 6d, the cheapest of all Wren's City commissions. 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, 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “St Vedast Foster Lane” as church in City of London, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as church in City of London, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7595600. Authority coordinates are 51.515, -0.096. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1308, 1662, 1591 and 1666.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St Vedast Foster Lane”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St Vedast Foster Lane primary sources, St Vedast Foster Lane archive and Vedast research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St Vedast Foster Lane”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St Vedast Foster Lane” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.