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Julian House has grown significantly over the past 15 years, so we have been thinking about how to update our brand to reflect the true scope and scale of our work.  

 

The name ‘Julian House’ is taken from our founding project, an emergency hostel for people sleeping rough in Bath – but now, we deliver many more services across the South of England.  

 

We are also facing a legal challenge from another charity who shares our name, which is putting us under pressure.  In this context, we have decided that now is the right time to rebrand Julian House – including changing our name.  

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This is an opportunity to recognise everything that has made Julian House the organisation it is today – and look forward to a future where there will be many new challenges and opportunities to embrace. 

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Our new brand will reflect all aspects of our charity, the people we support and the impact we hope to achieve.  

 

We will not be spending lots of money on this process; work will be led internally on a small budget, with some support from expert agencies and our network of supporters.  

 

This change will not disrupt any of our services: our clients have always, and will always, come first.  

 

Nothing is changing immediately. We plan to launch our new brand in April 2026. You will continue to see and hear from us as Julian House until then.  

 

We are able to make this change because we are in a strong position as a charity; we are not in trouble, and this is not a signal that anything is wrong at Julian House.  

 

We are not going anywhere: this rebrand is a sign of our readiness to take on whatever the future will bring, and to continue to provide the services on which our clients rely.   

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FAQs

Why are you doing this?  

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We have been under pressure from another charity with a similar name for some time.  

 

This means that maintaining the name ‘Julian House’ now poses a legal risk, which could incur huge costs and distract us from our core work.  

 

We also want to avoid a dispute with another charity, which wastes charitable money and pulls focus from our respective missions.  

 

But we also see this as a great opportunity to evolve our brand in line with the changing scope and scale of our work. 

 

We have grown significantly over the past 15 years, from a small, Bath-based charity to a regional provider reaching 2,700 people with outreach, support and wraparound support last year.  

 

A new brand will recognise this evolution and set us up to reach even more people in need in the coming years.   

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Which charity is legally challenging you, and why do you have to change our name as a result of this challenge?  

 

The charity challenging us is Julian Trust, a small, volunteer-led night shelter in Bristol.  

 

Julian Trust has existed for longer than us and gave our founding trustees permission to use the name ‘Julian’ for our own night shelter in 1987.  

 

This means they have legal rights over the name, should they wish to enforce them.  

 

Since we first took on the name, Julian House has grown significantly, while Julian Trust has stayed the same size.  

 

Now, Julian Trust is concerned that there is scope for confusion between our two organisations, which could put them at a fundraising disadvantage.  

 

We do not want to detract from their great work, or enter into a legal dispute, which is why we have decided to change our name.  

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Are you spending donations from the public on this?   

 

We are not fundraising for this work.  

 

All charities have to maintain reserves for extra-ordinary activities like these. We have built up a safe level of reserves, so we will be able to draw down some money for this.  

 

However, we are still going to keep costs as low as possible.  

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How much will this cost and is it worth it? 

 

This work is being led by our small marketing team, so we’re incurring very little additional costs to the charity. 

 

We are working with a local agency, The Wind In Your Sails, who will provide targeted support to our team throughout the process.  

 

This support will cost Julian House £6,000, which we consider to be good value for money.  

 

Our trustees have agreed that this is affordable and proportionate.  

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Why are you undertaking this internally, is that the right choice?  

 

Our primary concern is making the best use of the charity’s money.  

 

We do not have lots of money spare to spend on an expensive external brand agency; nor do we believe this would be what we should spend our money on, even if we had it.  

 

We are lucky enough to have a highly skilled internal team who can apply their skills to this exciting project.  

 

We are buying in targeted support from The Wind In Your Sails to support us along the way.  

 

We have also brought in back-fill resource to maintain our ‘business as usual’ marketing and communications activity.  

 

We are confident we can deliver a high-quality, well-managed and cost-effective rebrand with this hybrid approach.  

 

Will Julian House lose recognition and trust because of this? 

 

There is always a risk of loss of recognition when you undertake a rebrand, but we are working hard to ensure that does not happen. 

 

We are communicating with all our stakeholders from the outset of this process, to make sure that they are aware of the upcoming change and the reasons behind it.  

 

There will also be opportunities for stakeholders to be involved of the shaping of, and final decision on, our new brand and name.  

 

And we will deliver a comprehensive implementation plan to raise awareness and build recognition of our new brand and name once it is agreed.  

 

We will also continue to refer to Julian House as our ‘former’ name in communications for three years after the change, to maintain a clear link to our legacy brand and mitigate confusion.  

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Are you spending public sector contract income on this?  

 

No. We are drawing on our reserves for this work.  

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Are you diverting funds away from services to do this?  

 

No, we have ensured all services can be fully funded before setting a budget for this work.  

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Will your new name include the word ‘Julian’?  

 

No, the legal challenge from another charity means that we cannot use the name ‘Julian’.  

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There seems to be lots of change and uncertainty, is Julian House in trouble?  

 

Not at all. We are working in challenging times, and we have to respond to that – but we are in a strong position to do so.  

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Are you closing any services?  

 

We do not have plans to close any of our services.  

 

However, service funding is tied to local authority budgets, which are stretched.  

 

We are working closely with local authority partners to secure the long-term future of our services and open new services to address unmet need 

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What this mean for my service?  

 

There will be no disruption to our services, or the support we offer clients. You should not notice any difference in your service as a result of this process.  

 

What does this mean for my role at Julian House?  

 

There will be no change to your role at Julian House. We are continuing to deliver business as usual through the change process.  

 

How can you be involved? 

 

We are really keen to hear from our partners, clients and supporters to help shape our new identity. 

 

We will be promoting opportunities to get involved with the design and development of our new brand and name between now and February 2026. 

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Will I have a say in the new name? 

 

Yes, there will be opportunities to share your views.  

 

We want our new brand and name to reflect authentically who we are and what we stand for – your feedback will be crucial in shaping that.  

 

However, the ultimate decision will be made by our Board of Trustees.  

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