As Unique Venues of London turns 30 this year Trinity House, one of its early member venues, will also celebrate three important anniversaries:
- The building was re-opened by the Queen on Trafalgar Day, 21st October, 1953 – it was one of her earliest official duties in that capacity. This year will mark its 70th anniversary.
- The current Trinity House building was constructed between 1794 – 1796 by Samuel Wyatt with Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, laying the foundation stone on 12th September, 1793. 2023 will be its 230th anniversary.
- The Arms of the Corporation were granted by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1573 so 2023 marks the 450th anniversary of this event. The Arms are the single feature of the single-loom carpet in the Court Room. It took thirty weavers six months to complete and, at 850lbs in weight, had to be lifted by crane through the central window to its first-floor location.
Image credit: Karen Woolven Flowers
Trinity House is a Grade I listed building located on Tower Hill with direct views of the Tower of London. It is home to the Corporation of Trinity House, the UK’s largest maritime charity wholly funded by its endowments, spending millions of pounds each year on its charitable activities including the welfare of mariners, education and training, and the promotion of safety at sea. It is also a Deep Sea Pilotage Authority. Today it serves the mariner as the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England, Wales, The Channel Islands and Gibraltar, with responsibility for nearly 600 aids to navigation, from traditional aids such as lighthouses to the latest satellite navigation technology.
Trinity House has its own extensive history but it too has been an important part of Unique Venues of London’s history.
When Unique Venues of London was launched in 1993, Trinity House signed up upon the appointment in 1995 of Event Manager, Edgar King. As he reminisced on his retirement in April, 2019, “few other dedicated academic venues, City or livery halls welcomed independent room hire reservations at the time. Trinity House was, up till then, solely the working home of the General Lighthouse Authority and the Corporation of Trinity House maritime charitable entity. UVL was the first organisation to professionally launch a marketing organisation and to charge venues for membership.”
When the nation’s manned lighthouses were decommissioned in the late 80’s, it became apparent that Trinity House was in need of substantial renovation and the adjoining building on Tower Hill was sold to cover these costs. It was decided also that the House should be open to carefully vetted private bookings to augment the refurbishment funding.
It was an uphill struggle initially to promote the venue to The City as the location was both a bonus and a challenge. However little things, such as front-of-house parking, and the direct views of the Tower of London proved influential in their decision-making process. In those early days, Trinity House was a preferred venue for many corporate roadshow presentations and financial product launches.
Corporate and private budget were lavish – extravagant even. The list of early and stalwart caterers, such as Payne and Gunter, Chester Boyd, Mustard, By Word of Mouth all helped to steer events in the venues direction – and the more word got around, the more the venue was approached by other caterers wanting to work with the house; Trinity House collaborated then and now with approximately 12 preferred caterers.
Some of the more memorable occasions in the past 30 years were events surrounding The Queen’s various Jubilee celebrations, and the 2012 Olympic Games - Austria’s Tyrol Tourism took over the entire house and a mock alpine chalet was constructed throughout the interiors. Trinity House is increasingly popular with tourism boards due to the proximity of the House to the DLR, which is handy over World Travel Market (WTM), for instance.
In addition Trinity House has ‘starred’ in numerous movies and TV shows over the years including ‘Shackleton’ - with Kenneth Branagh sprinting into the House; ‘Johnny English’ with Rowan Atkinson; The Muppets Most Wanted movie; James Bond’s ‘Skyfall’; ‘McMafia’, ‘The Invisible Woman’; BBC’s riveting ‘Trust’ series and ‘Celebrity Master Chef’ and many more productions.
Zoe Turner, Head of Events, Trinity House comments "When I joined Trinity House 17 years ago, I was new also to London life and the connections I made with and through UVL were a huge help, then and now. Other venue marketing organisations have come and gone but Unique Venues of London thrives, stronger than ever and Trinity House looks forward to celebrating UVL’s anniversary as well as our own milestone celebrations this year."