The Brady Photographic Archive is an online photo archive documenting the history of the Brady Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

Archive Description

The Brady Photographic Archive is a collection of hundreds of photos taken between the 1940s and the late 1970s at the Brady Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs in the East End of London. The original Brady Boys’ Club was established in 1896 and the Girls’Club in 1925, amalgamating in 1960.This archive of photographs is based on a cache of several hundred photographs that had been ‘lost’ for many years. The initial cache of photographs had been stored by journalist Hannah Charlton, who collected them while researching material for a project about the East End. They were stored in an attic, and forgotten about for some 35 years, but when Hannah rediscovered them, they found their way back to the East End and to Susan Andrews, Reader in Photography at the Sir John Cass Faculty, London Metropolitan University, who organised a small exhibition called ‘Nostalgia is Not Enough’ using some of the material at the former Cass building opposite the Whitechapel library. The Exhibition was seen by a group of old Bradians and a committee was established to organise an exhibition of the photos and re-establish connections with former Brady Club members. The website contains a greatly expanded selection from the cache of ‘lost’ photos that formed the basis of the Brady Photographic Exhibition, held at the London Metropolitan University building in Aldgate during May 2018. The online collection continues to evolve as former Brady members contribute photographs and memorabilia from their personal collections.

Online Accessibility

The archive photographs can be found freely available on the Brady Archive website. Once the current Pandemic is over, the physical collection will be transferred and held at the Bishopsgate Institute, when availability to view the physical documents will be dependent on opening hours. Enquiries about the archive collection can be made on the website’s contact page.