London has gained a free history archive after more than 200 years of records, photographs, films and artefacts were uncovered and catalogued during the restoration of Union Chapel’s Sunday School building.
The new Sunday School Stories archive spans the period from 1799 to the present day and reveals the social, political and cultural history of both Union Chapel and London itself.
The collection is now available online, with in-person access also offered by appointment at the newly restored Sunday School Hall.
The archive forms part of the wider Sunday School Stories Project, which has transformed the historic Sunday School building into a new community and creative hub. The restoration, which began in 2024, was supported by a £2.28 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside funding from Historic England and other organisations.
Among the discoveries are a rare autograph by Mahatma Gandhi, evidence of suffragettes disrupting a speech by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and material documenting the origins of the Big Chill music festival at Union Chapel.
The collection also sheds light on Union Chapel’s role in educating some of London’s poorest children. Records from the Nichol Street Ragged School, founded in 1839 under the chapel’s care, document efforts to provide free education to children living in extreme poverty in Victorian London.
Other notable finds include lantern slides believed to have been taken by pioneering American photojournalist Frances Benjamin Johnston, including what may be a photograph of US President Theodore Roosevelt, and programmes from the earliest Little Noise Sessions charity concerts.
The archive also traces Union Chapel’s evolution from a Nonconformist church into one of London’s best-known live music venues, while also documenting key moments in the capital’s history.
New material is being added weekly, with a dedicated archive and reading room due to open later this year.
The archive is here.