THE LEEDS LIBRARY

Registered charity 1114386 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q6515993 · Wikipedia

The maintenance, development and making available of an historic subscription library. The preservation and making available of an historic library building.

Objects

The Objects are: 10.1 the advancement of education, the diffusion of knowledge and the provision of suitable literature for persons particularly but not exclusively within the city of Leeds and the surrounding area by establishing and maintaining a library to promote the study and knowledge of literature and all artistic and scientific subjects and by providing library facilities and research facilities; 10.2 to preserve for the benefit of the public the listed building known as Nos 16 to 20 Commercial Street, Leeds LS1 6AL being a place of historical and architectural interest, value and beauty; 10.3 To advance the education of the general public in all aspects of arts, culture and/or heritage.

Area of benefit: CITY OF LEEDS

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Leeds, Yorkshire and The Humber, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity ended the year with an operational deficit of £80,326, a significant decrease from the previous year's surplus, largely due to a £179,000 loss on the sale of heritage books. Per the trustees' report, the charity continues to run at an operational deficit and has not yet met its reserves policy target of nine months' operational expenditure, which is estimated at approximately £420,000. The trustees note that the main risk to the going concern arises from the costs of redevelopment and the need to correct the long-standing operational deficit, though they consider it appropriate to continue using the going concern basis.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Thomas Coombs Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/12/2021 (received 03/11/2022, 3 days after the 31/10/2022 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — The Leeds Library (matched by registered charity number).

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• The Leeds Library — “The Leeds Library receives £250k grant towards the Next Chapter project.” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

3 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (2 freehold); recorded price paid £1.4m. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Investments (55% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Paul Charles Ellischair · trustee of 2 other charities
• Adrian Coltman
• Catherine Ruth Robbins
• IAN WILLIAM SHAW · trustee of 1 other charity
• PHILIP ANDREW WALKER
• Pat Urry

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Leeds City

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE LONDON READING CENTRE.

• THE LONDON READING CENTRE income £104k
• LEEDS THEATRE TRUST LIMITED income £9.7m
• LEEDS LIEDER + income £342k
• THE IPSWICH INSTITUTE READING ROOM AND LIBRARY income £560k
• SAMUEL LEEDS FOUNDATION income £81k
• THE LONDON LIBRARY income £6.3m

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.