The Keep Archives

22/04/2025

This Nutley Women's Institute scrapbook was created to celebrate the WI's Golden Jubilee. It contains photos, newspaper clippings, opinions on local fashions and more. If you want to take a sneak peek back to 1965, the scrapbook can be found at The Keep (ref WI/204/3/2).

10/04/2025

What's in our Matusow collections, what's new in our research room and who was (arguably) Brighton's first Rock ‘n’ Roll band? Find out in The Keep's latest newsletter.
You can read it here: https://ow.ly/uVQl50Vy5eH
Or you can subscribe here: https://ow.ly/xhUA50Vy5eK

11/03/2025

Read about the role the Aspidistra Radio Masts played in WWII and discover what's available in The Keep's research room in The Keep's latest newsletter.

You can read it here: https://ow.ly/EQx050VfH3f
Or you can subscribe here: https://ow.ly/bsWQ50VfH3g

06/01/2025

Discover how to access The Keep's research service, find out how a Saltdean Hotel celebrated New Year's Eve 1938 and more in The Keep's latest newsletter.

You can read it here: https://ow.ly/KEmZ50UArJ2

Or you can subscribe here: https://ow.ly/zruL50UArJ0

06/01/2025

A series of correspondence sent to Sussex artist Eric Ravilious has just been made available to view in our Reading Room for the first time since the collection’s acquisition in 2016 thanks to the help of a volunteer.

Correspondence for years 1923-1939 now have detailed catalogue descriptions with the other years to follow, but the whole series is now open for public access and can be browsed at RAV/3/3/.

25/12/2024

12/12/2024

Find out what was on the menu for Christmas dinner at a Brighton hotel in 1959 and what life and love were like for one couple in wartime. The Keep's latest newsletter is out now.
You can here it here: https://ow.ly/fZGO50UpVxg or subscribe here: https://ow.ly/25qJ50UpVxb

12/12/2024

Christmas Opening Times: We will be closed from Tuesday 24th December to Friday 27 December inclusive. We will also be closed on Wednesday January 1. We'll be open as normal on Saturday 28 December and Tuesday 31 December. 🎄🎅

29/11/2024

Lewes solicitor’s clerk Henry Bartlett took up photography as a hobby around the 1890s. The collection of his photographs (ACC 8509) shows life in Lewes over 100 years ago. A surprising number of people chose to be photographed with their pets.

28/11/2024

Afternoon tea in the garden at Sutton Hall with silver and cake stand. Elizabeth and her son Francis, and a nursemaid for the baby. From the Sclater family album. Ref: AMS/5643/3/10

28/11/2024

“Not a prayer meeting, but merely the family (plus the King) trying to solve an acrostic.” This drawing is from ‘The Flyleaf’ a manuscript family circular edited by William Frederick Winckworth of Brighton, c1901. Ref: ACC 6630/14

27/11/2024

Flyers c1992-c2017 from the papers of Stuart Alexander, aka Boogaloo Stu, DJ, entertainer and nightclub promoter most well-known for Brighton's Dynamite Boogaloo & London counterpart Shinky Shonky. Ref: ACC13248.

25/11/2024

Strike a pose! Fashion show at York Place, Brighton 1949. From the Argus.

25/11/2024

Stylish swimwear on the cover of this programme marking the opening of the SS Brighton in West St, 1934. At the time, it was the largest covered seawater swimmingpool in the world

24/11/2024

Look familiar? This 1965 proposal for a large seafront tower - known as the Skydeck - is sketched out above and would have loomed large over West Street, Brighton. Ref ACC8761/68

24/11/2024

Our Reading Room map table was custom-built to accommodate the largest map (a tithe map of Rotherfield) we held when we opened in 2013. Since then, we got an even bigger one of Rye which is over six metres long.

23/11/2024

Is there anything cuter than five tiny piglets? Sir William Joynson-Hicks, first Viscount Brentford and former Home Secretary, shown on his farm in Newick Park, Sussex, with piglets, c1930 ref: ACC 10951/1/2/54

23/11/2024

All aboard the World's Smallest Motor Coach! Apparently reaching up to a whopping 26mph, these beautifully made miniature coaches built by Ernest Johnstone were a popular feature on Brighton seafront in the 1950s. Ref ACC/12514/14/89