New accounts filed at the Charity Commission reveal the cost of the vicar’s plans to replace our beloved Vaults & Garden with his own cafe and disclose that the dispute as a “serious incident has been reported to the Charity Commission.”
The accounts disclose that legal and other costs for the year ended December, 2024 totalled £133,000 and a further £57,000 for the year ended December, 2025. The figures do not include the legal costs incurred by the church in 2025 prior to trial of the dispute in October which are likely to have been much greater. The cafe has disclosed that its own legal costs of more than £200,000 had caused it to settle before trial.
The vicar, the Revd Will Lamb, announced that the church would be spending £750,000 on improvements to the building for the new cafe when he issued eviction proceedings against the cafe more than two years ago. But no details have been given of these plans.
The referral of the dispute to the Charity Commission who have the power to investigate the financial management of trusts by the trustees is clearly a serious matter and we will await their findings with interest. The trustees are the members of the Parochial Church Council which is led by the vicar.
Another aspect of the vicar’s plans is the issue of planning permission for any works to the Church which is a listed building and for which there have been planning applications and listed building consent applications going back many years.
According to university sources, a central issue in the legal dispute between the vicar and the cafe was whether the cafe premises were consecrated or not. Apparently, the vicar wished them to be regarded as consecrated in order to avoid the need for planning permission.
To date no works have been commenced on the premises and no information has been provided about what the works will include although an early announcement stated they would include toilets in Radcliffe Square. We will look forward again to details of the vicar’s plans.
Meanwhile please support the new Vaults & Garden at 2 King Edward Street just across the High Street from Radcliffe Square. You can enjoy all the usual treats of the old Vaults when you visit there.
team@savethevaults.com