About Us
Fosters' shoes, cases, luggage, wallets and other handcrafted English leather goods benefit from our long heritage of under-stated elegance and enduring quality, a tradition carried forward today by a vibrant young team of makers who uphold our unique craft ethos.
As a private firm, we take a long term view, nourishing the highest craft and service standards.
Our History
With a continuous tradition reaching back over 170 years, we are one of the oldest-established custom shoe and boot makers in the World, with a reputation for fine "West End" style shoemaking.
Foster and Son was founded in 1840. A century later master bootmaker Charles Chester brought his business under the Foster & Son roof when a World War II bomb destroyed his workshop, killing Mrs. Chester. By coincidence our shoemaker Mr. Foster was killed by another bomb, leading Chester to join Mrs. Foster in her premises at 5 Eagle Place, St. James's. Chester's 56 pound iron weight anchors a last making bench and is the only thing to survive.
Chester built up the firm's successful bespoke business, moving to 5 Duke of York Street, St. James and then to 83 Jermyn Street in 1966, where the firm thrives today, still in private hands.
