From a soup run to refuges across London#
Hestia began in 1970, after its founder, Jim Horne, experienced homelessness on the streets of London and started a soup run; within a year more than 800 people had a safe place to sleep. It now supports more than 22,000 adults and children in crisis across London each year: survivors of modern slavery, women and children escaping domestic abuse, people with mental health needs and people leaving prison. It is the main organisation supporting victims of modern slavery in the capital.
For domestic abuse, Hestia's team supports women and children in 26 refuges across eight London boroughs, and it says it helped more than 3,150 people recover from domestic abuse last year. Every woman has an up-to-date risk assessment and support plan, Children and Family Workers support children, and a six-week summer play scheme runs across its refuges. In the community, its IDVAs, MARAC and floating support teams work with people at high risk.
Finding a refuge space in London#
Hestia's Refuge Referral Line helps women, alone or with children, find refuge spaces across London. Its team works Monday to Friday, 10am until 4pm, by phone or email, and takes bank holidays off. Survivors, professionals and agencies can all use it; the team identifies spaces that fit your needs and helps with the referral. For refuge outside London, or support at other times, Hestia points to the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge. Its get help page also lists the National Centre for Domestic Violence for help with injunctions, ManKind for men and Galop for LGBTQ+ people.
Bright Sky#
Bright Sky is Hestia's free app and website for anyone experiencing domestic abuse or worried about someone else, including a colleague. It has questions to help you judge whether a relationship is safe, guidance on support, advice on talking to a friend, a directory of specialist services near you, and a journal for recording evidence that is sent to a safe email address you choose. It is available in English, Welsh, Polish, Punjabi and Urdu.
Safe Spaces in pharmacies and banks#
Through its UK SAYS NO MORE campaign, Hestia runs Safe Spaces: private rooms in more than 4,400 pharmacies and banks across the UK. You walk in, ask a member of staff if you can use the Safe Space, and are shown to a private room where you can call a helpline, a support service or a friend, or simply sit and think. Online Safe Spaces put a discreet help page on the websites of businesses that host them.
Changing your name with a refuge's support#
Hestia's site does not cover names. A woman in one of its refuges who wants a new name can draft the deed herself (GOV.UK's sample text is free to use from 16) and should give the refuge's postal address for residents, which staff will supply, rather than its location (the refuge answer). If you also need to change the name on immigration documents, Home Office caseworker guidance expects a domestic violence victim's application to change name for safety to come with backing from a body like a refuge service, so your support worker's help counts there. A few banks insist on a passport or licence showing the new name (which banks), and support workers will find practical detail in the guide for support workers.
This page describes what Hestia publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Hestia has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
