SADLER'S WELLS TRUST LIMITED

Registered charity 279884 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as SADLERS WELLS THEATRE

The object for which the charity is established is to advance education particularly by encouraging the understanding and appreciation of the dramatic arts.

Objects

TO ADVANCE EDUCATION PARTICULARLY BY ENCOURAGING THE UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF THE DRAMATIC ARTS ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM BY PROVIDING, PRESENTING, PRODUCING, ORGANISING, MANAGING AND CONDUCTING PERFORMANCES OF CLASSICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PLAYS, OPERA, BALLET, FILMS AND CONCERTS, IMPROVING AND PRESERVING AMENITIES FOR PUBLIC BENEFIT.

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: Islington, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that total reserves increased to £13.1m, with unrestricted reserves at £4.5m, meeting the trustees' stated target of £3.5m for free reserves. The charity reported a net movement in funds of £6.2m, driven by a surplus on restricted funds, despite an unrestricted funds deficit of £0.3m. The auditor confirmed that the financial statements give a true and fair view and identified no material uncertainties regarding going concern.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Moore Kingston Smith 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
• 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.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 01488786

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Sir Alistair Spalding CBE — Chief Executive (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.

• SOTO, Alexandra — director, appointed 21/04/2026on trustee list
• WILLIAMS, Paul Malcolm — director, appointed 08/04/2026not on trustee list
• WHITE, Sharon Michele — director, appointed 25/11/2025on trustee list
• DEBBONAIRE, Thangam Elizabeth Rachel, Baroness — director, appointed 17/02/2025on trustee list
• GRACE, Nicholas Andrew — director, appointed 23/04/2024on trustee list
• PEEL, Yana Alexandra — director, appointed 04/10/2023on trustee list
• KHAN, Suhair Fariha — director, appointed 28/09/2022on trustee list
• CONNOR, Clare Jane — director, appointed 28/09/2022on trustee list
• PATEL, Nina — director, appointed 28/09/2022on trustee list
• MULHOLLAND, Paul Edward — director, appointed 22/02/2022on trustee list
• NEWTON, Brenda Leslie — director, appointed 22/02/2022on trustee list
• BASDEN, Nicholas Bernard — director, appointed 22/04/2021on trustee list
• SLOTOVER, Matthew Jake — director, appointed 21/09/2020on trustee list
• ALBONICO, Maria — director, appointed 30/06/2020on trustee list
• SMITH, Melanie Jane — director, appointed 26/02/2020on trustee list
• BATTCOCK, Humphrey William — director, appointed 27/09/2017on trustee list
• HIGGINS, Nigel — director, appointed 01/01/2017on trustee list
• SPALDING, Alistair William — secretary, appointed 24/11/2004

Official officers record.

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: Sadler's Wells scores 2.3/5 from 10 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 (221,037 followers) · instagram (249K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.1 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 (53% 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: 10.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• NIGEL HIGGINSchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Alexandra Soto · trustee of 1 other charity
• Baroness Thangam Debbonaire · trustee of 1 other charity
• Brenda Newton · trustee of 2 other charities
• Clare Jane Connor · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dame Sharon White · trustee of 1 other charity
• HUMPHREY BATTCOCK · trustee of 1 other charity
• Maria Albonico · trustee of 1 other charity
• Matthew Jake Slotover · trustee of 1 other charity
• Melanie Jane Smith · trustee of 1 other charity
• Nicholas Andrew Grace · trustee of 1 other charity
• Nicholas Bernard Basden · trustee of 2 other charities
• Nina Patel · trustee of 2 other charities
• PAUL EDWARD MULHOLLAND · trustee of 3 other charities
• Suhair Fariha Khan · trustee of 3 other charities
• Yana Peel · trustee of 2 other charities

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

Operates in: City Of Westminster · Islington

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.

• Nicholas Bernard Basden — trustee here and at THE PRESENT VALUE TRUST

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 SADLER'S WELLS FOUNDATION LTD.

• SADLER'S WELLS FOUNDATION LTD income £1.6m
• SEDEL - COLLINGS FOUNDATION income £162k
• WELLS OPERATIC SOCIETY LTD income £103k
• THE DAVID SNOWDON TRUST income £285k
• SUNDERLAND THEATRE COMPANY income £42k
• SANDCASTLES PLAYGROUP income £508k

Side by side with its peers

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