ABOVE BAR CHURCH

Registered charity 1131075 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Sunday Worship and Bible TeachingMid week prayer and Bible studyHome GroupsSocial concernAdvancing Christian FaithWorking with other ChurchesEducation of Christian FaithRelief of poverty

Causes: Education/training · The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty · Overseas Aid/famine Relief · Religious Activities · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£1.2m

Latest spending

£980k

Registered

2009

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity recorded a surplus of £222,594 on unrestricted funds for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total funds held at £2,992,743. The trustees confirm that free reserves of £1,016,900 (excluding fixed assets) exceed their stated policy target of approximately £218,000, representing three months of regular expenditure. The independent auditors reported that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: three months of unrestricted expenditure (held: £1.0m)

“It is the policy of the church that free reserves which have not been designated for a specific purpose should be maintained at a level equivalent to at least 3 months’ regular expenditure. Based on the 2024-2025 expenditure of unrestricted funds this amounts to approximately £218,000.” — page 5

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Related-party transaction: Trustees reimbursed for expenses

“Two trustees were reimbursed for expenses for a total of £512 during the year (2024: £104 to one trustee). The relatives of one trustee were paid a total of £3,260 (2024: £1,887) for services provided to the charity. The total amount of donations received without conditions from the trustees and persons connected to them amounted to £54,260 (2024: £72,594). During the prior year, the church provided an interest free loan of £213,750 to J Berry, minster to enable him to purchase a property due to the church manse being inappropriate. The loan is repayable in full in 14 years and is included within debtors. No repayments were made during the year. During the year, the church sold the church manse to K Dick, a trustee, for £600,000. The sale as a whole (including the value) was agreed with the Charity Commission. Ashley James, trustee, is also a trustee of The Big Difference, who became independent from Above Bar Church on 1 April 2024. The charity transferred assets totalling £45,367 to The Big Difference during the current year, following the registration of the new charity. All the trustees of the charity, are also trustees of The Katherine Rose Tebbutt Trust. The former church manse that was sold in 2024, was partially owned by The Katherine Rose Tebbutt Trust.” — page 29

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Knight Goodhead Limited. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

Corporate structure

Registered company of the charity Companies House 06959469

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Jonathan Berry — Minister and Team Leader (source)
Callom Harkrader — Minister/Trustee (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

HARKRADER, Callom Bernard Hasher — director, appointed 01/04/2026on trustee list
PICKUP, Trevor Martin — director, appointed 01/09/2023on trustee list
JAMES, Joanne Caroline — director, appointed 03/11/2022on trustee list
DICK, Karen Michelle — director, appointed 01/06/2022on trustee list
THWAITES, Philip — director, appointed 01/06/2022on trustee list
JAMES, Ashley Nicholas — director, appointed 21/10/2019on trustee list
DICK, Karen Michelle — secretary, appointed 03/11/2022

Official officers record.

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 £350k. 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 31/03/2025)

Total income

£1.2m

Total spending

£980k

Reserves (reported)

£768k

Employees

Reported reserves equal ~9.4 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Ashley James · trustee of 1 other charity
CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY RUPERT HUGHES · trustee of 2 other charities
Callom Bernard Hasher Harkrader · trustee of 1 other charity
Joanne James · trustee of 1 other charity
Karen Michelle Dick
Philip Thwaites · trustee of 1 other charity
Trevor Martin Pickup · trustee of 1 other charity

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

Operates in: Hampshire · Southampton City · Wiltshire

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£1.2m	£980k
31/03/2024	£1.4m	£1.6m
31/03/2023	£1.7m	£1.6m
31/03/2022	£806k	£929k
31/03/2021	£1.0m	£848k

Common questions

Is ABOVE BAR CHURCH financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity recorded a surplus of £222,594 on unrestricted funds for the year ended 31 March 2025, with total funds held at £2,992,743. The trustees confirm that free reserves of £1,016,900 (excluding fixed assets) exceed their stated policy target of approximately £218,000, representing three months of regular expenditure. The independent auditors reported that the use of the going concern basis of accounting is appropriate with no material uncertainties identified. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Knight Goodhead Limited.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR WITH ST. ALPHEGE AND ST. JUDE, SOUTHWARK.

THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR WITH ST. ALPHEGE AND ST. JUDE, SOUTHWARK income £554k
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF HOLY TRINITY, UPPER TOOTING income £277k
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST BARNABAS HATTERSLEY income £145k
NORTH CHURCH UK income £2.6m
CENTRE CHURCH income £145k
LANSDOWNE BAPTIST CHURCH BOURNEMOUTH income £819k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
ABOVE BAR CHURCH	£1.2m	—	0	above	—	no doubt
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR WITH ST. ALPHEGE AND ST. JUDE, SOUTHWARK FY2024	£554k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF HOLY TRINITY, UPPER TOOTING FY2025	£277k	—	0	below	—	no doubt
THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST BARNABAS HATTERSLEY FY2025	£145k	—	0	above	—	no doubt
NORTH CHURCH UK FY2025	£2.6m	£80,000 - £89,999	—	above	—	no doubt
CENTRE CHURCH FY2024	£145k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt

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