LONDON HANDEL SOCIETY LIMITED

Registered charity 269184 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as LONDON HANDEL FESTIVAL, TILFORD BACH FESTIVAL CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA LIMITED

The London Handel Society organises the annual London Handel Festival. The charity's remit is to present high quality performances of Handel and his contemporaries, and to support and encourage young artists through the Handel Singing Competition. The Festival includes opera, concerts, talks and education projects, and ticket prices are kept affordable to encourage all who love Handel to attend.

Objects

THE PROMOTION AND ADVANCEMENT OF AESTHETIC AND MUSICAL EDUCATION IN PARTICULAR BUT WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, THE WORKS OF GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

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 · Recreation · 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 deficit of £24,592 for the year, with total funds decreasing from £301,474 to £276,882. Unrestricted free reserves stood at £135,086, which is above the stated policy target of £100,000. The trustees confirmed that adequate resources exist to continue operations on a going concern basis.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). 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.

• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Safeguarding 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).

• London Handel Society Endowment Fund — “Major Supporters London Handel Society Endowment Fund – Founding Gift in Memory of Howard and Nan Hopkin” (source page)
• Lucille Graham Trust — “Creative Learning and Participation Programme Lucille Graham Trust” (source page)
• Maria Björnson Memorial Foundation — “Trusts and Foundations Maria Björnson Memorial Foundation” (source page)

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

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

Reported reserves equal ~2.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (54% 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: 5.1% of total income — above the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Aaron James Watkins
• Andrew Packman · trustee of 2 other charities
• JAMES OLLEY · trustee of 2 other charities
• MELISSA HARRIET AUGUSTA SCOTT
• Michael David Holley
• Sabrina Lesley Shelford Rodriguez · trustee of 2 other charities

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

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

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.

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 HANDEL HOUSE TRUST LIMITED.

• THE HANDEL HOUSE TRUST LIMITED income £982k
• HALLE CONCERTS SOCIETY income £10.8m
• ARUNDEL FESTIVAL LTD income £90k
• LONDON CITY ORCHESTRA income £47k
• CAMBRIDGE HANDEL OPERA COMPANY income £28k
• THE HANDEL INSTITUTE income £30k

Side by side with its peers

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