History
It was founded in 1841 by George Crouch, a bookseller with five deaf children, to train deaf and dumb young men for trades, and educate those with no previous schooling (Linda Isaac (ed), ‘Full Circle: The History of RAD,’ Royal Association for Deaf People)
From 1845 it trained deaf young women in dressmaking and needlework, and there was also a strong welfare element from an early stage (Linda Isaac (ed), ‘Full Circle: The History of RAD,’ Royal Association for Deaf People)
As a charity, the Institution was largely dependent on benefactors; however, an item in The Times of 25 February 1848 says that the Court of Common Council held on the previous day ordered a £100 grant to be made to the Adult Deaf and Dumb Institution
Its Secretary until early 1851 was Alex Melville (The Times, 6 March 1851), but later that year, the Institution was advertising for a new Secretary, Melville having become by then the Assistant Secretary; they wanted a clergyman for the post of Secretary (The Times, 11 June 1851)
By the 1850s the school and industrial home element had been discontinued and the Institution reconstituted itself as the Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb with offices at 15 Bedford Row, and a team of missionaries who visited the deaf and dumb in their own homes (The Times, 23 May 1855)
It later moved out of Bloomsbury to 272 Oxford Street, where it also had St Saviour’s church built in 1870–1874 (The Times, 29 December 1873; Survey of London, vol. 40)
It was forced out of Oxford Street in the 1920s when this became predominantly a shopping area
It became the Royal Association in Aid of Deaf People in 1986, although it is commonly known as the Royal Association for Deaf People
It no longer has an evangelical Christian element and abandoned its temperance policy in the 1970s, but it continues to organise a yearly carol service
It promotes the welfare and interests of deaf people whose main language is sign language
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What was reforming about it?
It was the first successful charity for deaf adults in England
It is the most enduringly successful of the nineteenth-century charities for the deaf in England
Where in Bloomsbury?
In 1842 it was at Bartlett’s Buildings, Holborn, just south of Bloomsbury (The Times, 18 April 1842), but it later had premises at 26 Red Lion Square (The Times, 15 May 1846), given as its headquarters in Sampson Low’s The Charities of London (1850); it was still there in 1851 (The Times, 11 June 1851)
Arthur Dimmock’s ‘A Brief History of RAD’ claims it once had an office at 1 Red Lion Square, but there is no evidence in The Times for this (A. F. Dimmock, ‘A Brief History of RAD,’ Royal Association for Deaf People)
In 1850 it had opened a shop at 21 Theobald’s Road to sell articles made by its deaf and dumb workers (Sampson Low, The Charities of London, 1850)
By the 1850s the Institution had become the Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb, with offices at 15 Bedford Row (The Times, 23 May 1855); it moved out of Bloomsbury in the 1870s
Website of current institution
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Books about it
Linda Isaac (ed), ‘Full Circle: The History of RAD,’ Royal Association for Deaf People (opens in new window)
Archives
Records of its investigation by the Family Welfare Association are in London Metropolitan Archives, ref. A/FWA/C/D/60/001; details are available online via Access to Archives (opens in new window)
There is also relevant material in the RNID library, held by UCL; details are available online via the UCL Library website (opens in new window)
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