Our History
CLARITY - Employment for Blind People was established in 1854 as "The Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind" (GWB) with the objective of providing employment for blind people. Our founder was Miss Elizabeth Gilbert, who lost her sight at the age of three due to scarlet fever.
Elizabeth believed in enabling blind people to help themselves, a mission that the charity continues to this day.
"She did not believe in doles, pensions, and so-called "Homes". She believed in Work, in a trade, a handicraft, the possibility of earning one's own living, as the means of restoring blind men and women to their place in human society," according to Frances Martin, in his book "Elizabeth Gilbert And Her Work for the Blind".
Elizabeth set up a workshop in Holborn with 7 blind employees making baskets. She employed William Hanks Levy, who had been blind from early youth, as the manager of the workshop.
The workshop soon became too small to cope with the growing number of blind workers and moved to a house in Brunswick Square and then to larger premises in Euston Road, London.
Elizabeth spent a significant amount of her time fundraising for us, receiving a donation of £50 from Queen Victoria in 1856.
Queen Victoria furthered her support for GWB by becoming our first patron in 1859. By this time we were supporting about 150 blind people.
In 1893 a purpose built factory was opened in Tottenham Court Road and Queen Victoria became our very first patron, offering a generous donation to help establish the factory. Other early supporters included Prime Minister Gladstone, the Archbishop of York and Charles Dickens, who helped to augment our funds by publishing an article entitled "At Work in the Dark".
At the turn of the 20th Century, the chief patrons were King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, other patrons included the (then) HRH Prince of Wales, HRH Prince Christian, various Bishops and senior clergy, whilst the charity's Presidents were the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duchess of Bedford, Viscount Portman was named as one of the trustees.
The history of GWB during the next twenty years saw some ups and downs of finance and trade, creeping overdrafts and unexpected windfalls. The period has several picturesque episodes - for example all the mats and some other articles used on board HMS Ophir, in which the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) toured the world, were products made in GWB's workshops made to the order of the Orient Steamship Company
The First World War (1914-1918) created many new difficulties. Trade fell, prices rose and war bonuses had to be paid to blind workers to help them meet the higher cost of living. But the situation soon righted itself and in 1918 record figures were reached - sales amounted to £21,000 and more blind people were employed. In 1954, The General Welfare of the Blind's centenary year, four houses were built in Tottenham to house some of the blind workers and their families and they are still in use today.
Continued growth
The General Welfare of the Blind continued to grow over the following years, moving to premises in Curtain Road, London EC2, producing baskets, brushes, brooms, upholstery and chair seats, divans and mattresses and something new - soap!
The initiative of making of toilet soap came in 1936 made possible by a generous grant of £500 by trustee and Victoria Cross recipient, Captain Sir Beachcroft Towse, and fellow trustee Lord Nuffield, who had been a benefactor to the blind in several directions. After the Second World War progress was made with the introduction of talcum powder. A door to door sales organisation was set up and in those days our sales people were heartily welcomed each time they called with soap and talcum powder! Door to door sales continued for the next 50 years and the product range grew with shampoos, foam baths, shower gels, liquid soap, body lotions, beeswax polish, car wash, kitchen cleaners, bath cleaners and air fresheners. In 1982 our President, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, opened our premises in Ashburton Grove, London.
In 1995 due to environment changes we decided to introduce a telesales operation, in addition to local marketing of our products, whereby we telephone or visit householders and businesses offering packs of high quality toiletry and cleaning products which are made by our blind employees.
Today we employ approximately 65 registered blind and disabled people in our factory in London and are now expanding our charitable work by employing blind people in our telesales offices in various parts of the country.
In December 2002 we moved to York Way as our location in Ashburton Grove was to be the site for Arsenal Football Club's new Emirates Stadium.
In 2010, shortly after the introduction of the coalition government we were visited by Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP since we represent a leading example of Social Enterprise in action.
Learn more about the Famous Faces involved in our history.
Further information can be found on our Wikipedia page, here.