The Regency Society of Brighton and Hove also manages a website of over 7,000 historic photographs of Brighton and Hove collected by James Gray, 1904–1998, a local collector with a passion for the streets of Brighton and Hove, and, as time went on, further afield.
James Gray spent his working life in insurance but his real passion was for the streets of Brighton and Hove.
His vast collection of topographical pictures began in the 1950s with the chance acquisition of a few images showing the Western Road. From then on, he bought, swapped and commissioned a huge range of views of the city and beyond.
After his death in 1998, the Regency Society was lucky to buy the collection, which offers a unique photographic record and provides invaluable insight into the way our city has looked during the second half of the 19th and much of the twentieth century.