Privacy Policy

Southbank Centre is committed to protecting your privacy. We will use the information that we collect about you in accordance with, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and any replacement laws, and, from May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Who we are

Southbank Centre is a national arts organisation and a registered charity. We receive 40% of our funding from Arts Council England. The rest of our income comes from ticket sales (although a high proportion of our artistic programme is free), commercial partnerships, sponsorships and individual donations.

Southbank Centre is a charity registered in England and Wales number 298909. Its trustee is Southbank Centre Limited, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales number 2238415. 

What information do we collect?

The personal information that we collect includes:

  • name, title, date of birth and gender
  • information about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation (you have the right to decline to provide us with this information)
  • contact details including postal address, email, phone numbers and links to social media accounts
  • transaction history (we never store your whole card number, although we may keep a note of the last four digits to help us identify transactions)
  • access requirements (for example if you require wheelchair access, audio description, BSL interpretation, or any other access requirement) and whether you have a disability defined by the Equality Act 2010
  • details of visits to our website including traffic data, location data, operating system, browser usage, and the resources that you access
  • image and likeness (as captured on our CCTV cameras and in photographs and videos we use for promotional purposes)
  • other background personal information you provide to us (for example when you apply for a job, tell us your story, provide a reason for making a donation or correspond with us).

How do we collect your information?

You give us your information when you buy a ticket, make a purchase from our shop, buy something online, sign up for one of our events, update your preferences on our website, tell us your story, make a donation, apply for a job, or communicate with us. We also keep your details when you sign up to receive emails from us. If you have signed up to our Access Scheme we will note this in your customer record. 

more information on Access Scheme

We keep a record of the emails we send you, and we may track whether you receive or open them so we can make sure we are sending you the most relevant information. We may then track any subsequent actions online, such as buying a ticket.

Like most websites, we receive and store certain details whenever you use the Southbank Centre website. We use “cookies” to help us make our site – and the way you might use it – better. Cookies mean that a website will remember you and enable online transactions. It also helps us understand how you use our website, where we can make improvements and how best to tell our audiences about events they might be interested in.

more on our use of cookies

We may also obtain personal information about you from other sources, such as if a family member or friend contacts us on your behalf. Where this occurs and it is not practical for us to provide you directly with a copy of our privacy policy, we may ask the person who provided us with your information to make this privacy policy available to you.

We may also receive information from external sources which enables us to gain a better understanding of our audiences, visitors and supporters and to improve our fundraising and marketing methods. These sources include:

Third party organisations

Your information may be shared with us by independent fundraising sites like JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving if you make a donation to Southbank Centre, but only when you have indicated that you give your consent to hear from us. You should check their Privacy Policy when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process your data.

Social media

We use social media to broadcast messages and updates about events and news. On occasion we may reply to comments or questions you make to us on social media platforms. You may also see adverts from us on social media that are tailored to your interests. See our cookie policy for further information.

Depending on your settings and the privacy policies used by social media and messaging services like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, we may receive non-personally identifying demographic or analytical information from these services that enables us to better understand the reach and effectiveness of our advertising.

Information available publicly

This may include information found in places such as Companies House your biography on your work website or information that has been published in articles/ newspapers.

How we keep your details safe and secure

Your personal data will be held and processed on Southbank Centre’s systems or systems managed by suppliers on behalf of Southbank Centre. We maintain a customer relationship management (CRM) system to hold contact details and a record of your interactions with Southbank Centre such as ticket purchases, donations, memberships, queries, complaints and attendance at special events. Where possible we aim to keep a single record for each customer.

We always seek to hold your data securely. Access to customer information is strictly controlled. The CRM system can only be accessed by people who need it to do their job. Certain data, for example sensitive information, is additionally controlled and is only made visible to members of staff who have a reason to work with it.

Our basis for processing your personal information and what we use it for

We aim to be clear when we collect your data and not to do anything you wouldn’t reasonably expect.

We may process your personal data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract. For example, if you make a purchase, sign up for an event or give a donation.

We may process personal data because it is in our legitimate interests to do so. For example we may use your personal information to understand your reasons for donating to us, to better understand your interests, to carry out screening on potential donors and to conduct due diligence on major donors (please also see the section below on Research, profiling and ‘wealth screening’), to tailor our communications to you and/or to give you an exceptional experience at our events. We may also collect information about how you use our services (including our website) to analyse our customer base and improve our processes.  The Southbank Centre also records and uses film, photographs and audio for promotional purposes on its website, social media accounts and other formats under its legitimate interests basis for processing where it would not be necessary, appropriate or practicable to obtain your specific consent (for example, we may seek specific consent for prominent or impactful uses, but typically not for group shots, background inclusion or internal use).

We may also process your personal data (including sensitive personal data) where:

  • it is necessary for medical purposes (for example, in a medical emergency)
  • it is necessary to protect your or another person’s vital interests
  • we have your consent to do so (for example to monitor the diversity of visitors to Southbank Centre). We will also ask for your consent to provide you with information about products and services and fundraising activities which may be of interest to you (apart from where it is appropriate for us to rely on our legitimate interests to do so).

Giving you control

We may tell you about events, concerts, shop offers, priority booking and information about our site (for example when our roof garden opens, or updates on building works on site). Occasionally, we may include information in these communications from partner organisations or organisations who support us. We make it easy for you to tell us how you want to hear from us (by logging onto our website and updating your preferences in the “My Account” section) or by telling our Ticket Office team over the phone or in person. You can opt out from these marketing communications at any time - every email sent to you will tell you how to do this.

If you have opted out of marketing communications, we may still get in touch with you. For example we may email you to give you important information about the events you’ve booked or to tell you about any changes.

Southbank Centre as a charity and how we respect our donors

Southbank Centre relies on charitable support to maintain our world-class programme and to make this available to everyone.

You can opt in to receive information about supporting Southbank Centre by logging in to our website and updating your preferences in the “My Account” section, or by telling our Ticket Office team or one of the Development Team over the phone or in person. We will tell you about our current campaigns that we think are most relevant to you, ways that you can make a real difference to our education programmes, and invitations to events where you and your family can get closer to our artistic programme by joining one of our Supporters Circles or Patrons Groups.

We invite some people who might be interested in joining one of our supporter groups to special events eg. drinks receptions or rehearsals or to tell you about extra benefits including priority booking. Guests we invite might include current supporters, Members, people who have given donations in the past, audiences who attend concerts and events regularly, audiences who have identified specific programme interest in the “My Account” section of our website, friends of current supporters, our Board and staff.

We invite a select number of guests to our events as places are limited but host several events a month to meet as many of our supporters as possible. If you haven’t had an invitation but would like to attend, you can get in touch with the team. Email us at CustomerRelations@southbankcentre.co.uk

Research, profiling and ‘wealth screening’

Our donors tell us that tailored and relevant communication is a priority for them and we constantly review this and listen to you to make sure we are getting this right.

We want to ensure our communications to our supporters are personal, relevant and timely and we want to give you an enhanced experience when you attend events by introducing you to artists or members of staff that we think you might enjoy meeting. To ensure that our communications are relevant to you and your interests and to assess your likely ability to make, and interest in making, donations to Southbank Centre, we may use additional information such as geographical information and measures of affluence where available from external sources to assist us. This will be a combination of publicly-available information, for example drawn from company resources and news media, with what you have provided to us, such as past donations and career information. We may use the services of external screening/profiling companies, and publicly available data from social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, depending on your privacy settings and/or interaction with us.

Southbank Centre may hold personal data that has been created by us from other personal data that we already hold about you, either from internal or external research/profiling. This may be carried out by automated or manual processes, and enables us to better understand you as our supporter and make appropriate requests for support. A list of publicly available sources of information used by Southbank Centre for the purposes detailed is available on request.

If you do not wish Southbank Centre to undertake this activity, please email CustomerRelations@southbankcentre.co.uk

Please note however that before seeking or accepting major donations we are required to conduct a minimum level of due diligence, including reviewing publicly available personal data. Due diligence is conducted in accordance with the Southbank Centre’s gift acceptance policy.

Southbank Centre gift acceptance policy

Third parties

We may need to disclose your details:

  • if we run an event in partnership with another named organisation so that they can help us run the event
  • in order to comply with any legal obligation to do so. This includes the police and other crime protection and detection agencies or regulatory bodies
  • to our legal advisors
  • for the purposes of regulatory or inspection compliance, for example to the Charity Commission
  • to funding bodies, particularly Arts Council England, who may use anonymised personal information to analyse our audience development programmes, ticket sales and self-generated funding to understand the impact of the public investment made in Southbank Centre
  • Data processing services acting in an accordance with our instructions, and subject to confidentiality obligations

We sell tickets on behalf of our Resident Orchestras - London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and London Sinfonietta, and we share our customer relationship database with them. If you buy a ticket from southbankcentre.co.uk for a Resident Orchestra’s performance, your name, contact details and record of the tickets you have bought will be visible to that orchestra. The orchestra will use your data for customer service and analysis. If you select either the Email or Post option to consent to receive information about events, news and offers from one or more of our, Resident Orchestra(s) you may additionally be contacted  for marketing purposes.

We do not sell personal details to third parties for any purpose nor will we share your personal data from 25th May 2018 with any other organisations or promoters that have not been named in our privacy policy for their own marketing communications.

How long do we keep your information?

We may retain information for a period of six years after your association with us has come to an end. Some information may be retained indefinitely for historical, statistical or research purposes. As stated below, you have the right to require us to erase personal data.

Your rights

Under the DPA you have the following rights:

  • to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you
  • to require that we cease processing your personal data if the processing is causing you damage or distress
  • to require us not to send you marketing communications

Once the GDPR takes effect in May 2018, you will also have the following additional rights:

  • to require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect
  • to require us to erase your personal data
  • to require us to restrict our data processing activities (and, where our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal)
  • to receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of you transmitting that personal data to another data controller
  • to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

Contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you: