We are delighted to present our new Community Exhibition in the Steam Hall Gallery, ‘Brentford at Work, Rest & Play’. It has been lovingly put together by photographer and local historian, Karen Reader. Karen is known for her Brentford Thru My Lens accounts which can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The exhibition is included in your admission to the Museum, and open every day the Museum is open.

Please note: the exhibition is in the Steam Hall Gallery upstairs. We regret that there is no step-free access.

Brentford residents: Brentford residents are welcome to visit the exhibition with a special day ticket of £5 for adults/concessions and free for children. Please bring proof of address with you when you visit the Museum. Tickets can be purchased via our website or at our welcome desk and are valid for a single day only.

Karen has curated a selection of photographs, objects and memories telling stories of the community in Brentford.

Community is the people who make a place what it is and I have heard time and again that Brentford has something special about it. Community is you, me, the people before us who paved a way and the people yet to come. Together we can share memories to keep them alive and we can make new ones too.

We are a town seeing many changes, but we are also a town of Brentonians. Families that go back here for generations, my own included. Whilst change is inevitable this Exhibition is a ‘pick n mix’ of Nostalgia. I have woven together some of the wonderful memories shared with me over the last 5 years, a long with photographs and Brentford Ephemera (much of which has never been on public display before.) I wanted to share some of your voices and say thank-you for sharing them with me. I hope people will come and enjoy all the wonderful things on display. I also hope you might leave a memory behind on the ‘Brentford Memory Wall’.

I am going to finish this introduction with one of my favourite quotes: ‘If we don’t fight for community it won’t happen. Community is the intentional pursuit of being intertwined in each others stories. It is being a part of the highs and lows together. Being hope for each other, having fun together, working together, encouraging one another, helping each other to grow and calling out the gold in one another’ P McClure.

Karen Reader

Brentford Thru My Lens