THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA LIMITED

Registered charity 232391 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as LSO

The principal activity of the LSO is the provision of a Symphony Orchestra for high quality musical performances, broadcasting and recordings and supporting this work with a music education programme designed to reach a wide range of people.

Objects

TO PROMOTE MAINTAIN AND ADVANCE EDUCATION, PARTICULARLY MUSICAL EDUCATION AND TO ENCOURAGE THE ARTS INCLUDING THE ARTS OF MUSIC, DRAMA , MIME, DANCING AND SINGING

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 · website · Get email alerts

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

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net surplus of £4.2m for the year, driven largely by income for the Future Ready project at LSO St Luke's. Unrestricted general funds increased to £4.9m, which the trustees note is at the lower end of their stated reserves policy target range of £2.8m to £5.6m. The directors confirm the organization has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by HaysMac 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
• 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

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.

Funders the charity credits

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

• Arts Council England — “Arts Council England” (source page)
• BMW Group — “The BMW Group is aware of its social responsibility in the field of culture and is involved in the sustainable and long-term support of proj…” (source page)
• 29th May 1961 Charity — “29th May 1961 Charity” (source page)
• ABO Trust Sirens Fund — “ABO Trust Sirens Fund” (source page)
• Andor Charitable Trust — “Andor Charitable Trust” (source page)
• Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement — “Anthony and Elizabeth Mellows Charitable Settlement” (source page)
• Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust — “Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust” (source page)
• City of London Cultural and Learning Fund — “City of London Cultural and Learning Fund” (source page)
• The Clore Duffield Foundation — “The Clore Duffield Foundation” (source page)
• Cockayne – Grants for the Arts — “Cockayne – Grants for the Arts” (source page)
• David Solomons Charitable Foundation — “David Solomons Charitable Foundation” (source page)
• Garfield Weston Foundation — “Garfield Weston Foundation” (source page)
• Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation — “Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

4 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.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (490,586 followers) · instagram (419K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/07/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.4 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (44% 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: 5.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Sarah Quinnchair
• Adam Wright
• Angela Barnes
• Ben Thomson
• DAME MARY MARSH · trustee of 1 other charity
• Daniel Jemison
• David Jackson
• HHJ Anuja Dhir KC
• Harriet Rayfield
• JONATHAN MOULDS · trustee of 1 other charity
• James Alexander Thomas · trustee of 1 other charity
• Janis Elizabeth Susskind · trustee of 1 other charity
• John Harte
• Mark Beddy
• Maxine Kwok
• Professor David Michael Gann CBE
• Stephen Doman

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

Operates in: Throughout London

Income and spending

Common questions

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 LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ENDOWMENT TRUST.

• THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ENDOWMENT TRUST income £1.1m
• THE LONDON MUSICAL THEATRE ORCHESTRA income £392k
• THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC TRUST income £1.1m
• THE LEICESTER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA LIMITED income £52k
• THE LONDON SYMPHONY CHORUS income £167k
• LONDON CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA income £1.5m

Side by side with its peers

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