Nucleus was started by local people in the 70s to address acute welfare issues faced by vulnerable people in the Earl’s Court and surrounding area.

At that time Earl's Court was an area drawing vulnerable people including young mothers and young men, many of whom were gay, looking for affordable housing.

The likes of Rachman, Van Hoogstraten, and other unscrupulous property owners were rife, letting poorly subdivided slum bedsits at extortionate rents to vulnerable people.

With a grant from Fondation Rejoindre the founders of Nucleus set about creating advice services for the most vulnerable in society, including young people facing poverty and homelessness. “We were aiming to give people agency, using legal advice and support, to help people help themselves” was how one of our former trustees explained it.

During this, our 50th year we are inviting service users, colleagues, funders and partners to share their thoughts and ideas to help shape our service plans for the next 5 years. We have strong foundations on which to build future services. Our legal advice team have been successful in changing legislation from Poll Tax liability, and The Maximum Rent Regulation, to more recently challenging liability for HMO tenants.

As a rights-based front-line charity we have also sought to work in partnership with other charities and with like-minded funders to maximise the impact of our work.