Lock & Co. is a small family business that strongly believes in social responsibility. That’s why each year we donate to charities close to our hearts. The charities we have chosen are ones where we know our support can make a real difference. Please follow the links to hear their stories.
We Are Beams is a local charity that supports disabled children and their families in Kent and Medway.
The disabled children and young people who have access to our services are aged between 4-19 years. They will usually have one or multiple learning difficulties, complex health needs such as Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy or another life limiting disease, physical or sensory impairment, challenging behaviour as a result of their disability, Autism, or severe ADHD.
We currently have 450 families as members accessing our support. Our work is divided up into four key areas. These are Short Breaks Services, Family Advice Service, Direct Payment Service and Dragon’s Retreat 6 bedded Respite Unit.
We Are Beams is a local charity that supports disabled children and their families in Kent and Medway.
The disabled children and young people who have access to our services are aged between 4-19 years. They will usually have one or multiple learning difficulties, complex health needs such as Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy or another life limiting disease, physical or sensory impairment, challenging behaviour as a result of their disability, Autism, or severe ADHD.
We currently have 450 families as members accessing our support. Our work is divided up into four key areas. These are Short Breaks Services, Family Advice Service, Direct Payment Service and Dragon’s Retreat 6 bedded Respite Unit.
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) are taking a stand against suicide. That means standing against feeling rubbish, standing up to stereotypes, and standing together to show that life is always worth living. CALM run a life-saving helpline and webchat that is open everyday from 5pm-midnight.
Chestnut Tree House is the children’s hospice for Sussex and South East Hampshire and provides care for around 300 children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions every year. Thanks to support from the local community, children and families who know they don’t have long together have the chance to live life to the full and say goodbye in the way that is right for them.
On a visit to Chestnut Tree House, kids can be astronauts for the day in the multi-sensory room, discover creepy crawlies on a woodland walk, or form their very own pop group in the music room. It is a place where parents can just be parents, and not carers, and where siblings have people to talk to who understand what they are going through.
As well as care provided at the House, nurses visit families at home, taking children out to explore their local community, or simply giving tired families and carers the chance to take a well-earned break.
Then, when the time comes, they help families say goodbye, in whatever way feels right for them, at home or in the hospice itself. They also offer ongoing bereavement support for the whole family.
It is thanks to the generosity of the local community who make this happen. Over £4 million is needed every year to provide hospice care for local children and their families. Very little of this comes from central government. The rest comes from the donations received, fundraising, gifts in wills, shops, the Chestnut Tree House lottery, and volunteering.
The Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity offers dyslexia support and advice to anyone who may need it, whether they think they have dyslexia or care for someone who may have dyslexia. They support children, young people, and adults alike.
Since 1971, the charity has been removing barriers to learning and life for people with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties by providing expert, personal, and life-changing support to over 1000 people a year.
They also support parents of dyslexic children, their teachers, and employers of dyslexic staff.
The charity’s team of specialists do this through dyslexia assessments, consultations, 1:1 tuition and training as well as a variety of courses, workshops, information, and advice.
Following their founder Helen’s mantra to help people regardless of their ability to pay, they provide free support to many individuals from lower-income backgrounds. Together we inspire people to believe in themselves, achieve their goals, and succeed on their own terms.
Lock & Co. Hatters work very closely with Emma Willis to support her Headley Court ‘Style for Soldiers’ initiative. At least once a year Lock & Co. Hatters visit injured servicemen to fit them with hats and caps that are specially made for them. We make the Dreadnought fedora from which a portion of the sale is donated to this charity.
The charity was set up by Emma in 2008 to outfit injured servicemen and women with adapted garments and accessories. Lock & Co. has supported Style for Soldiers since the beginning, and we continue to do so today. Additionally, we recently worked with one of the Style for Soldiers Patrons who supports children from local schools with low self-esteem to receive some work experience.
Brain Tumour Research is the only national charity in the UK that is dedicated to raising funds for continuous and sustainable scientific research into brain tumours. Scientists at dedicated Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence work tirelessly to gain a deeper understanding of brain tumours to get closer to a cure.
Brain Tumour Research has been a recipient of monetary donations from Lock & Co. Hatters for many years and our staff are committed to raising money through additional fundraising events. This year we launched the Brain Tumour Research Panama and for each hat sold, we donated £50 to the charity in support of their dedication to working towards finding a cure.
Lock & Co. are honoured to have worked with the wonderful pupils and teachers of Blakesley Primary School, Northamptonshire, for Wear A Hat Day . Each pupil learned from members of the team at Lock’s about the history of hats and how they are made, and then had the opportunity to design, make and trim their own hats, using their own imagination and inspiration! A selection of the fabulous creations by the pupils of Blakesley Primary School were displayed in the shop at Lock & Co., 6 St. James’s Street. Wear A Hat Day seeks to raise much needed funds for the Brain Tumour Research charity.
Established in 1990 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal Warrant Holders Association, QEST was founded to provide a scholarship programme to champion and promote British craft. Lock & Co. actively supports and participates in QEST and RWHA activities to further promote the message of craftsmanship.
In 2021, Lock & Co. teamed up with QEST scholar Manuel Mazzotti, an incredible bookbinder, to display his contemporary works in our shop for London Craft Week 2021. The aim was to celebrate the QEST scholars' crafts and to share these with the general public, be it through displays, demonstrations or pop-up shops.
We produce a special hat or cap each year and the proceeds are donated to this charity.
At Lock & Co., we take a great deal of pride in the fact that our walls are lined with stories from all the way back to 1676 when the shop first opened.
