2024-05-31-accounts

Charity Number: 1204151

Company Registration Number: 14838783 (England and Wales) Private Limited Company by guarantee without share capital use of 'Limited' exemption

LONDON CENTRE FOR THE HUMANITIES

TRUSTEES REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

YEAR ENDED 31 MAY 2024

LONDON CENTRE FOR THE HUMANITIES

COMPANY INFORMATION

Trustees

Prof Richard Sennett (Chair)

Ms Lesley Lokko

Sir Ferdinand Mount

Dr Ian Bostridge (Resigned January 2025)

Company Secretary SK Stone King (Terminated December 2024)

Company number 14838783 Charity number 1204151

Registered Address Martins, Robins Lane, Lolworth, Cambridge, CB23 8HH

Independent Examiner Alex Todd, 10 Darlington Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V

Bankers NatWest, 250 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4AA

Report of the Trustees LONDON CENTRE FOR THE HUMANITIES

Charitable Aims

London Centre for the Humanities is a forum for the humanities.

It promotes the arts and sciences which relate to the understanding of human beliefs, models of expression and social practice.

It holds events, seminars and lectures and mentors emerging writers and artists. In doing so it seeks to promote writing, performance, and the visual arts which transcend particular expressive forms.

The Trustees (who are also the directors for the purposes of company law) present their report and the financial statements for the period ended 31 May 2024.

Legal and Administration Detail

The official name of the Charity is London Centre for the Humanities. The Charity was incorporated on 2 May 2023, company registration number 14838783, and received its charitable registration on 28 July 2023, charity number 1204151. The registered address of the Charity is situated at Martins, Robins Lane, Lolworth, Cambridge, CB23 8HH.

It is a charitable company and goes by no other names than London Centre for the Humanities.

The charity does not own and/or lease land or property.

Trustees

The Trustees who served throughout the period and at the date of this report were as follows:

Prof Richard Sennett (Chair) Ms Lesley Lokko Sir Ferdinand Mount

Dr Ian Bostridge (Resigned January 2025)

Trustees shall be appointed at a General Shareholders Meeting for a term of three years. Retiring Trustees may be re-appointed; Trustee may be re-appointed twice without a break (i.e. for a total of nine consecutive years).

The Trustees meet three times a year to agree the broad strategy and areas of activity of the organisation. The day-to-day administration and project management is delegated to volunteers and freelance consultants.

The Board begun to set up two subgroups: one to look at ways to create a mentoring program, and secondly how to widen access to the speaker events London Centre for the Humanities is running.

Activity for Year Ended 31 May 2024

First Year of London Centre for the Humanities

The London Centre for the Humanities is a venue for writers, artists, and scholars to share ideas. The Centre is new, beginning in London in 2023. It conducts informal discussions, more formal workshops, conferences and public lectures.

It is a self-governing intellectual community attached neither to a university nor to government. Its support comes from individuals and foundations. The Centre is a registered charity in Great Britain, with equivalency determination in the US.

The London Centre is modelled on the New York Institute for the Humanities, which was founded forty-seven years ago by Susan Sontag, Joseph Brodsky and Richard Sennett. Its members meet bi- weekly at the New York Public Library to discuss a person’s work or a general issue which the members share. These meetings usually number about 40 people. If there is a desire to dig deeper, a Fellow may organise a workshop – some of which have lasted only four or five sessions, some of which have last for years. The workshops bring in people from around the city who otherwise are not part of the NYIH. From the workshops and the seminars can come lectures, performances, or exhibitions open to the public.

To get started, the London Centre has drawn on the informal elements of the New York Institute. This year LCH have organised a set of meetings, held at the British Academy, bringing together people from a broad intellectual and artistic swath of London. These get-togethers included, the ceramicist Edmond de Waal talking about his art, the singer Ian Bostridge discussing ways to impersonate a character onstage, the psychoanalysts Jacqueline Rose and Juliett Mitchell debating the meaning of truth in a patient’s account of his or her life, the newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger looking at how truth is measured in media today, the novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah exploring the changing meaning of colonialism in post-colonial literature, Jake Richards and Lucasta Miller discussing hidden themes in slave autobiographies, Richard Sennett discussing commedia del’arte theatre, Lesley Lokko

discussing the work of the Venice Architecture Biennale which she curated. All these talks benefit the public in the discussion content, and access to.

The Centre also begun to work with an assistant professor in relation to his work on the African diaspora in the Atlantic World to help raise awareness of this emerging writer and his work to a larger, international audience and to culminate with an exhibition due in February 2025.

This report has been prepared under the provisions applicable to small companies. Approved by the Board of Trustees on 1 March 2025 and signed on their behalf by:

Richard Sennett, Chair

Independent Examiners Report to the Trustees

For the Year Ended 31 May 2024

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended which are set out on the following pages.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity’s trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited for this year under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”). In carrying out my examination, I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or

2. The accounts do not accord with those records; or

3. The accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair view’ which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Alex Todd, 10 Darlington Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V

Date March 1 2025

Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 May 2024

	Notes		Unrestricted	Unrestricted	Restricted	Total Funds	Total Funds	Total Funds
			Funds		Funds
						Year		Year Ending
			Year Ending		Year Ending	Ending 31		31 May
			31 May	2024	31 May 2024	May	2024	2023
			£		£	£		£
Income from:
Donations				80,000			80,000	-
Investments			-		-		-	-
Other income			-		-		-	-
Total income:
Expenditure on:
Raising Funds		2		3,800	-		3,800	-
Charitable		2
activities				61,200	-		61,200	-
Total		2
expenditure:				65,000	-		65,000	-
Total funds
carried forward				15,000	-		-	-

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

Balance Sheet for the year ended 31 May 2024

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Total Funds Total Funds
Funds Funds
Year Ending
Year Ending 31 Year Ending 31 May Year Ending
May 2024 31 May 2024 2024 31 May 2023
£ £ £ £
Fixed assets
Tangible Assets 350 - 350 -
Current Assets
Cash at bank 15,000 - 15,000 -
----- End of picture text -----

Approach to Reserves

The trustees approach to reserves are to:

• act in the interests of their charity and its beneficiaries

• protect and safeguard the assets of their charity

• act with reasonable care and skill

• ensure their charity is accountable.

The charity will carry out a variety of both short and long-term projects in the humanities. The Trustees have examined the requirement of the free reserves, i.e. unrestricted funds, which, given the nature of the charity’s work, should equate to at least 3 months, and preferably 6 months’ unrestricted operating expenditure, covering adequate working capital for core costs, administration and support costs. Following this examination, the Trustees are satisfied that the requirement is met.

Free reserves at 31 May 2024 of £15,000 are sufficient to continue further work until donations for the next financial start. This allows the Trustees sufficient resources to engage in future planned project activity to ensure a long-term strategy for the organisation is pursued.

For the year ending (31 May 2024) the company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

• The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year in question in accordance with section 476,

• The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

Approved by the trustees on March 1 2025 and are signed on their behalf by

Richard Sennett, Chair

Notes to the financial statements for the Year ending 31 May 2024

2. Expenditure on raising funds

2. Expenditure on raising funds
	Unrestricted Funds
	2024
	£
Garden Fundraising Event	2,800
2. Expenditure on charitable activities
	Unrestricted Funds
	2024
	£
Venue Hire	14,036
Legal & Professional Fees	27,792
Travel and accommodation	4,495
Running costs	5,460
Dues and Subscriptions	874
Consultancy	8,600
Entertainment	943
Total expenditure on charitable activities	62,200.00

Investments

The charity has no investments. Liquid funds are placed in short-term deposits, paying regard to operational and project related liquidity needs.