BRISTOL OLD VIC AND THEATRE ROYAL TRUST LIMITED

Registered charity 228235 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as THE BRISTOL OLD VIC TRUST LIMITED

To produce year-round seasons of high quality, exciting drama in the historic auditorium serviced by a fit-for-purpose 21st century facilityTo provide an extensive programme of outreach work inspired by the repertoire and the needs of the local and regional communitiesTo take the lead in the local and regional theatre and cultural sceneTo safeguard the heritage of the Theatre Royal building

Objects

1) TO PROMOTE AND ADVANCE EDUCATION AND, IN PARTICULAR, THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN THE APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL ARTS IN ALL THEIR FORMS; AND 2) TO CONSERVE, DEVELOP AND ENHANCE THE PREMISES KNOWN AS THE THEATRE ROYAL, BRISTOL FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, AS A WORKING THEATRE AND A PLACE WITH HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS.

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: Arts/culture/heritage/science · Environment/conservation/heritage · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Bristol, City of, South West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net deficit of £1,018k for the year, driven by rising costs in staff wages, energy, and materials. Despite this deficit, the charity holds unrestricted reserves of £1,179k, which remains above its stated policy limit of £618k, and the auditors confirmed there are no material uncertainties regarding its ability to continue as a going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Bishop Fleming Audit Limited. Discloses 6 of 6 completeness components.

Year-over-year changes

• Reserves position vs the charity's own policy moved from "below" (FY2024) to "above" (FY2025).

Comparing this charity’s FY2024 and FY2025 accounts as analysed by this site.

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
• Campaigns and political activity 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
• 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.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). 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)

Reported reserves equal ~0.3 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (56% 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: 8.8% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (18/03/2019) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Aisha Thomas
• Anna-Sophie Beatrice Brendel
• BERNARD DONOGHUE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Christopher Francis Sharp
• Craig Cheney · trustee of 1 other charity
• Elisabeth Byrne
• Katherine Frances Anthony Wilkinson
• LaToyah McAllister-Jones
• Laura Frude
• Nicholas Aaron Jeremy Lee
• The Very Reverend Amanda Kirstine Ford · trustee of 2 other charities
• Timi Oni

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

Operates in: Bristol 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 OLD VIC ENDOWMENT TRUST.

• THE OLD VIC ENDOWMENT TRUST income £106k
• NEWCASTLE THEATRE ROYAL TRUST LIMITED income £16.3m
• THE OLD VIC THEATRE TRUST 2000 income £25.5m
• LEICESTER THEATRE TRUST LIMITED income £18.5m
• CARLTON LITTLE THEATRE TRUST income £54k
• LONDON HISTORIC BUILDINGS TRUST LTD income £441k

Side by side with its peers

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