Back in 1988, the building 18 Sutton High Street (then occupied by Linwood strong opticians) had plans to be demolished, when a member of the public stumbled upon a treasure trove collection of over 10,000 photo negatives, being kept in the sites basement. It was discovered that these were taken by none other than the photographer David Knights-Wittome, a photographer with royal warrants such as for the Portuguese and British royal families, that worked 80 years before these photos were found.  Since 1988, this vast collection of picture negatives has been stored in the Sutton archive service, meaning that most are unseen by the public for over 100 years.

David Knights-Whittome worked in his Sutton workshop, named ‘The Studio, Sutton’, as well as a branch in Epsom, between 1904-1918. His clients included Edward VII, George V, Prince Edward (later Edward VIII), Alfonso XIII of Spain, Manuel II of Portugal and Queen Maud of Norway. In 1911, he was awarded the Royal Warrant of Appointment. The projects aim is to be able to digitalise, catalogue and restore all of the picture negatives found. Due to a shortage in funds, no such work was able to be completed until 2014, when the Heritage Lottery Fund granted the scheme £95,000. A second fund was also awarded in 2016, which will hopefully mean the project can continue till the end. Today, it is that that about half of the collection has been saved, conserved and digitalized. The photos are revealing the links between Sutton and Epsom’s true historic importance, and many of the pictures are of women in the area. They show the changes in fashion, in attitude, in confidence and in self-awareness.

Many of the people participating in this digitalization are volunteers, or workers that receive little money for their contribution. There is currently an exhibition in the Honeywood museum, Carshalton, called ‘Women in the Frame: Female Portraits from the Knights-Whittome Collection’ that runs until 11th May. There is also a talk by the project officer Abby Matthews called ‘the discovery in the basement’, which is showing some of the pictures found, on 18th April.