Registered charity · London
The Friends of the British Library
- 5 trustees
- Income £1.6m (2025)
Official record Charity Commission · updated 13th September 2026 · Sources
Who leads it
- Dame Marina Sarah WarnerTrustee · since 2020
- Dr Christopher John Wright OBETrustee
- Dr Geoffrey Richard WestTrustee · since 2020
- Rev Norman Keith StephensonTrustee · since 2014
- Stephanie Kenna Ms.Trustee · since 2012
Current trustees as listed by the Charity Commission, which does not publish previous trustees.
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How it connects
Governance Register shows how people on this board have served on other boards.
Find yourself to see whether you're connected.
People on this board also serve on 3 other charities:
- The British Library Collections Trust · 5 shared trustees
- The Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust · 1 shared trustee
- Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Benevolent Fund · 1 shared trustee
Shared trustees are formal board links, not proof the organisations work together.
About
- What it does
- Education/training, Arts/culture/heritage/science
- Where
- Throughout England And Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
- Registered
- 1989
Income and spending
- YearIncomeSpending
- 2025£1.6m£1.7m
- 2024£78k£68k
- 2023£200k£203k
Earlier years
- 2022£11k£3k
- 2021£10k£78k
Charitable objects
THE EDUCATION OFTHE PUBLIC BY PROMOTION, SUPPORT, ASSISTANCE AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY THROUGH THE ACTIVITIES OF A GROUP OF FRIENDS.
Board analysis for researchers
Board DNA
How this board is put together, from Charity Commission trustee records and Companies House - deterministic, no AI.iBoard compositionCounted from the dated Charity Commission trustee register: the current board only, past trustees excluded.
5 trustees on the board
- Dame Marina Sarah Warner since 2020
- Dr Christopher John Wright OBE
- Dr Geoffrey Richard West since 2020
- Rev Norman Keith Stephenson since 2014
- Stephanie Kenna Ms. since 2012
Trustees past 6 years
- Dame Marina Sarah Warner since 2020
- Dr Geoffrey Richard West since 2020
- Rev Norman Keith Stephenson since 2014
- Stephanie Kenna Ms. since 2012
First-time vs portfolio trustees
Portfolio (5)
- Dame Marina Sarah Warner since 2020
- Dr Christopher John Wright OBE
- Dr Geoffrey Richard West since 2020
- Rev Norman Keith Stephenson since 2014
- Stephanie Kenna Ms. since 2012
Sector coverage iSector coverageThe charitable fields this board's trustees govern in elsewhere, by Charity Commission classification. Excludes this charity.
Gaps to watch
- No commercial or business experience on the board
- Several long-serving trustees could step down together
Succession forecast iSuccession forecastThe number of board seats likely to open in the next twelve months - summed across the board from each dated trustee’s tenure - and the profile worth recruiting next. From the filed record, deterministic.
Health of the organisation facts side by side - the conclusion is yours
0.0 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.9 months
Sources
Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.
Record details
- Registered charity number
- 328095
- Status
- Registered
- Governing document
- CONSTITUTION ADOPTED 12 JANUARY 1989, AS AMENDED 24 JANUARY 2001, 23 JANUARY 2002, AND 27 JANUARY 2004, ORDER OF THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS DATED 15 JUNE 2005.AS AMENDED BY RESOLUTION DATED 19 MAR 2018
- Contact on the register
- 02074127734 · friends@bl.uk
- Edition
- Register edition compiled 13th September 2026
- Labels
- Official record from the register · Calculated derived by Governance Register. Anything added by an organisation or person is labelled as provided by them.
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