Our History

The Licensed Trade Charity was founded over 200 years ago in 1793, by people from the trade and is devoted to looking after people from the licensed drinks trade, providing support when you need it. We help over 10,000 people each year and are proud to have helped hundreds of thousands in our 200+ years.

Throughout our history, the charity has been both innovative and responsive to changing needs and in seeking opportunities to sustain its work. We opened our first school in 1803 for 20 children from the trade and continue to educate children through our three successful schools today.

In the early 1800’s the charity began a project to house people from the trade who had fallen on hard times and began the Licensed Victuallers’ National Homes.  Those were later sold and the charity currently retains a partner relationship with Anchor Housing allowing us to nominate people from the trade so that they are pushed up the queue and are often housed very quickly.

We are proud of our heritage as part of the licensed trade community, proud to work with operators to reach out to people that we may be able to help and proud to help licensed trade people get back on their feet when they need a little support.

We are honest with how we can help people, and we take pride in the progress we make both across our schools and in being at the heart of the pub community that is so valuable in today’s society.

Read a full timeline of our 226 year history (pdf)

Our History & Heritage

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Our History & What We Do

Watch this video that runs through our history as well as the impact of our charity in 2018.

 

It talks about the development of our relationships with pub companies and how we have supported the licensed trade in recent times.

 

The video also shows the educational opportunities at our three schools we provide to young learners at LVS Ascot, LVS Oxford and LVS Hassocks.