The Couper Collection Public Trust was co-founded with Wandsworth Council in 1998. The Council financed health and safety works and general promotion, that enabled the collection to permanently open as a London tourist destination, and school’s education facility. In 1999 the trust was launched as registered charity by the UK Home Secretary.

The registered charitable objectives of the Couper Collection Public Trust are:
To advance public education and access to the Thames, through the preservation and showing of the collection, and events associated with the art, on the trust’s permanent moorings and historic barges.

Thames Heritage
The Couper Collection is London’s last remaining fleet of historic Thames barges on their ancient moorings, now owned by the trust, and continuously used since the 18th century. The barges, converted over the last 20 years, include a variety of types dating from 1908 to 1974, and the last two barges built on the Thames – a pair of 1000 ton wheat barges
London’s barges, also known as lighters, were originally responsible for the prosperity of the city. They were finally made redundant by the advent of containerisation in the 1980’s, when thousands of barges, and dozens of similar barge-moorings, disappeared for ever from the Thames in central London.