ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENT GARDEN FOUNDATION

Registered charity 211775 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q113069937 · also known as ORCHESTRA OF THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, ROH2, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENT GARDEN LIMITED, THE ROYAL BALLET, THE ROYAL OPERA

Presentation of opera and ballet performances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and tours in the United Kingdom and overseas

Objects

TO PROMOTE AND ASSIST IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION SO FAR AS SUCH PROMOTION AND ASSISTANCE SHALL BE OF A CHARITABLE NATURE AND IN PARTICULAR, TO RAISE THE ARTISTIC TASTE OF THE COUNTRY, AND TO PROCURE AND INCREASE THE APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE MUSICAL ART IN ALL ITS FORMS. (SEE MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION).

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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 · Economic/community Development/employment · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Westminster, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted general funds were £4.1m at the period end, equating to only 3% of current unrestricted incoming resources, which the Trustees note is below their target level of £10m. The charity reported a net expenditure on unrestricted funds of £4.3m for the year, driven by significant capital investment and inflationary pressures, though it maintains substantial cash reserves of £108.8m. The Trustees confirm adequate resources to continue as a going concern for at least twelve months, despite facing ongoing challenges from inflation and the need for substantial future building investment.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Crowe UK LLP. Discloses 3 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
• 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
• 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.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

• Massenet – Manon – The Royal Ballet – Orchestra of The Royal Opera House with Koen Kessels classicalsource.com · 19/10/2026
• Input tax recovery of theatre production costs: HMRC v Royal Opera House Covent Garden Foundation [2020] UKUT 132 (TCC) monckton.com · 03/06/2020

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00480523
• Trading subsidiary: ROH HOLDINGS LIMITED Companies House 02580395
• Trading subsidiary: ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ENTERPRISES LIMITED Companies House 04112266

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.

• BULL, Deborah, Baroness — director, appointed 01/09/2025on trustee list
• GOLANT, Farah Ramzan — director, appointed 10/12/2024on trustee list
• MCCALL, Carolyn Julia, Dame — director, appointed 10/12/2024on trustee list
• STANTON, Alan William — director, appointed 08/10/2024on trustee list
• SUMMERS, Alistair Gerald — director, appointed 08/10/2024on trustee list
• ISON, Daniel Alexander — director, appointed 01/09/2024on trustee list
• LUCAS, Stephen — director, appointed 01/09/2024on trustee list
• STREETEN, Joanna — director, appointed 21/05/2024on trustee list
• FREISE, Philipp Roland — director, appointed 07/12/2023on trustee list
• SUSSKIND, Janis Elizabeth — director, appointed 05/10/2022on trustee list
• BURGER, Lisa Jane — director, appointed 05/10/2022on trustee list
• BRITTON, Caroline Louise — director, appointed 14/12/2021on trustee list
• BROWNE OF MADINGLEY, John, Lord — director, appointed 01/09/2020not on trustee list
• BADAWI-MALIK, Zeinab Mohammed-Khair — director, appointed 08/10/2019on trustee list
• BUNTING, Timothy Brian — director, appointed 03/10/2017on trustee list
• DORFMAN, Lloyd Marshall — director, appointed 10/02/2015not on trustee list
• HURST, Leah — secretary, appointed 08/10/2019

Official officers record.

UK research funding (UKRI Gateway to Research)

• HYPHEN: Hyper Reality Production Tools for Immersive Experiences —

Property (HM Land Registry)

2 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Trustpilot: Royal Opera House scores 2.4/5 from 55 reviews (source) — reviews usually concern the charity’s shops or services, not its charitable performance.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (2,261,346 likes) · instagram (2M followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 25/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.3 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 2.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (45% 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: 12.1% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.2%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (05/05/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
• Received assets from another charity (28/10/2015) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alan Stanton
• Alistair Summers
• Baroness Deborah Bull
• Caroline Louise Britton · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dame Carolyn McCall
• Daniel Ison
• Esmeralda Devlin
• Farah Golant
• Janis Elizabeth Susskind · trustee of 1 other charity
• Joanna Streeten
• Lisa Jane Burger · trustee of 1 other charity
• Lord John Browne · trustee of 1 other charity
• Philipp Freise
• SIR NICHOLAS HYTNER
• Sir Clive Alderton KCVO · trustee of 1 other charity
• Sir Lloyd Dorfman CBE
• Stephen Lucas
• TIMOTHY BRIAN BUNTING · trustee of 2 other charities
• Zeinab Badawi-Malik

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Caroline Louise Britton — trustee here and at THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ENDOWMENT FUND 2000
• TIMOTHY BRIAN BUNTING — trustee here and at THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ENDOWMENT FUND 2000

Known funders

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

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

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 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE BENEVOLENT FUND.

• THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE BENEVOLENT FUND income £132k
• THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE ENDOWMENT FUND 2000 income £4.1m
• BATH OPERA income £42k
• COVENT GARDEN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA income £24k
• GOTHIC OPERA income £97k
• THE FRIENDS OF DORSET OPERA income £33k

Side by side with its peers

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