Established in 1992 as the Heritage of London Trust Operations Ltd, the Trust was founded with the encouragement of Historic England (formerly English Heritage), and born out of the Heritage of London Trust (HOLT) during the tenure of its first Director, Sir John Lambert, KCVO, CMG. We’re the only London-wide building preservation trust.

We operate in a similar way to any developer, although our objective is conservation and community benefit, rather than profit. Our projects involve working closely with London Boroughs and Historic England to remove problem or difficult buildings from the Heritage at Risk register. We also work in partnership with local authorities, housing associations, NHS Trusts, community groups and other building preservation trusts to ensure successful project delivery.

In November 2018 we started a Resilient Heritage Project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This resulted in a review of our internal procedures, and the wider sector and its needs, which has helped to shape and inform our new 5-year Strategic Plan and objectives.

Following this work the Trust was rebranded as the London Historic Buildings Trust in 2019.