LHA London

LHA are a leading provider of affordable accommodation in the heart of London. Our rooms are used by students and young working professionals in London, we can offer you the freedom to live your London life the way you choose LHA London has been providing high quality accommodation in London since 1940 – we celebrate our 75th Anniversary in 2015!

Created to give shelter to those made homeless by the Blitz; we now cater for students, up-and-coming working people and those starting out in London for the first time.

Whether you are looking to make friends or take time to get to know London, with 12 sites across the city – LHA is the perfect place to start your adventure in the nation’s capital.

The Government of the day set up London Hostels Association Ltd (LHA) with a Council of Management charged with the task of providing hostels for the homeless on the 5th November 1940.

The Council set to work looking for buildings, which could each hold about 50 people. But with bombs falling every night, buildings had to have basements or other spaces that could be converted to provide bomb shelters. This added to the difficulties of opening hostels. Nevertheless some ten weeks after the company was formed Mrs Churchill opened the first hostel in January 1941. The charges were £1 a week plus a shilling for any meals on Saturday and Sunday!

By the end of 1942 there were 33 hostels housing some 700 people, many of whom had been brought to London for job roles created by the war.

With the end of the war the number of hostels was gradually reduced. By the 1950’s the bulk of the residents were young people recruited in the provinces for work in Government departments. This continued to be the situation until the seventies, by which time there were 17 hostels.