Booksellers Provident Retreat at Abbots Langley, Herts, 1848“The Booksellers Provident Retreat, Abbott’s Langley, Herts, established 1843, is an asylum connected with the Booksellers’ Provident Institution, for aged booksellers and booksellers’ assistants, and their widows, who are in receipt of annuities from the Booksellers’ Provident Institution. Income under £100 per annum.” from The Charities of London, by Samuel Low, Jun., London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co. 1861.
Believe it or not these guys are still around. It is now run by the “BTBS the book trade charity” and “The benevolence, care and generosity of the members of the Booksellers Provident Institution who founded The Retreat lives on…The Retreat is unique in that it is the only estate dedicated to providing homes for people who have worked in book publishing, distribution or sales, where they can live safe in the knowledge that they have a home for as long as they need it, within a community of like-minded people who share a common interest.”
How long is the waiting list? The way things are going in the bookselling world maybe it’s time to open one of these in our country.