We Are the Brady Girls The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement (CREATURE)

We Are the Brady Girls is an exhibition of an archival project with artefacts derived from the Brady Archive.

For over seventy years, the Brady Clubs in Whitechapel played a fundamental role in the lives of thousands of young people in the East End of London.  The exhibition at London Metropolitan University is a new instalment in a succession of projects initiated by Sue Andrews and The Bradians Trust. Since 2020, The Bradians Trust has been working to digitally preserve a photographic collection of the club and its memorabilia and set out to record videoed histories of former club members.  

The Brady Boys’ Club was founded in 1896 by Lady Rothschild, who wanted to improve the social quality of life for those living in the area, many of whom were young Jewish refugees fleeing the violent pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. In 1925, The Brady Girls’ Club was established as sister to the Boys’ Club, led by the formidable Miriam Moses OBE JP, and in 1935 purpose-built facilities opened for the girls in Hanbury Street E1. During the war years, the Girls’ Club basement served as the local Air Raid Protection headquarters and all its facilities remained open throughout the conflict, offering a place to live for young women who had lost their homes in the Blitz. During a period of local, national and international upheaval, the Clubs provided care, shelter and space to grow for both Jewish and non-Jewish children and teenagers from underprivileged backgrounds.   

Focusing on the Brady Girls, the exhibition consists of archival photographs, artefacts and film interviews with former members made by Sue Andrews. The exhibition celebrates the legacy of the club, showcasing narratives of young women and the empowerment the club offered them, exploring the establishment and activities of the club, the opportunities for freedom and bonding in the war years and through to the 1970s, all of which are particularly resonant in a context of today’s increasingly fragmented, digitised spaces of belonging, disenfranchisement and marginalisation of so many of our society.