[ABOVE] The trade plate of  William Walls, Photographic Artist of 11 Kensington Place, Brighton (c1870).

[ABOVE] Portrait of an unknown man, photographed by William Walls of 11 Kensington Place, Brighton (c1871). Negative No.4,472.

[ABOVE] A modern photograph of the houses at 10-12 Kensington Place, Brighton (2008). William Walls established a photographic portrait studio at 11 Kensington Place around 1869 and a studio was still listed at this address in 1884. After the death of William Walls in 1873, his widow Mrs Rosetta Walls, worked as a photographer  from 11 Kensington Place under the name of "W. Walls". From around 1878, Mrs Walls was assisted by a professional photographer named William H. Hilton and the studio went under the name of Walls & Co. After Rosetta Walls married William Hilton in 1881, the studio carried the name "W. H. Hilton". It is believed that the photographic studio itself was in a glass building at the rear of the house.

When the 1851 census was taken, William Walls was working as a tailor and living with his parents and two younger siblings at 1 Centurion Place, Brighton. William's father, fifty-three year old Joseph Walls, is described on the census return as a "Proprietor of Houses". Joseph and Esther Walls were residing at their home in Centurion Place with three of their children - William Walls, a twenty-one year old tailor, George Walls, aged 14, and twelve year old Eliza Walls.

In 1858, William Walls married Rosetta Jane Hunt (born 1835, Rottingdean, Sussex), the daughter of Hannah and Henry Hunt. [ The marriage of William Walls married Rosetta Jane Hunt was registered in Brighton during the 3rd Quarter of 1858].

Around 1868, William and Rosetta Walls decided to set up a photographic portrait studio at their home at No.11 Kensington Place, Brighton.

The 1871 census shows William Walls and his thirty-five year old wife Rosetta J. Walls residing at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton. William Walls is described on the census return as a "Photographer", aged 41. No children are listed at the Kensington Place address in 1871 and as no children are recorded in the1861 census, it is assumed that the couple were without issue.

The building at No.11 Kensington Place was situated in a residential street in the North Laine area of Brighton. Today, Number 11 has the appearance of a regular domestic building with no sign of its former commercial use as a photographic studio. When Alfred Wright, a Brighton brewery worker, and his wife Hannah Wright set up a photography business at No. 18 Kensington Place in 1889, the photographic studio was constructed behind the house in the back garden. A similar arrangement probably existed at No.11 Kensington Place, with photographic portraits being taken in a glass studio at the rear of the house.

William Walls died in Brighton during the First Quarter of 1873, at the age of 43. The photographic studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton passed to his widow, Mrs Rosetta Jane Walls, but photographs produced at the studio between 1873 and 1877 were still printed with the details of Rosetta's late husband -  "W. Walls, Photographic Artist" .

[ABOVE] Portrait of an unknown woman holding a book, photographed around 1875 at the studio of " W. Walls" at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton. (Negative No.11,050). Although this carte-de-visite carries the name of "W. Walls, Photographic Artist", this photographic portrait would have been produced under the supervision of William Walls' widow, Mrs Rosetta Walls (1835-1885), who took over the running of the studio at 11 Kensington Place after her husband's death in 1873.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Walls & Co. , Artist Photographers of  11 Kensington Place, Brighton, taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite produced around 1878. After the death of her husband, William Walls, early in 1873, Rosetta Jane Walls operated the photographic studio at  11 Kensington Place with the assistance of an experienced photographer named William Henry Hilton (1831-1920) and by 1878 the studio name had been  changed to Walls & Co.

In 1858, Rosetta Jane Hunt married William Walls (born c1830, Newick, Sussex), a tailor of Brighton. Around 1868, Mrs Rosetta Walls and her husband established a photographic portrait studio at their home address of 11 Kensington Place, Brighton. William Walls was the proprietor of the studio at 11 Kensington Place for about five years. Early in 1873, William Walls died at the age of forty-three. Mrs Rosetta Walls, his widow, continued the photography business at 11 Kensington Place under the name of "W. Walls" for the next four or five years.

Around 1878, Mrs Rosetta Walls was joined in the business by William Henry Hilton (born 1831, Brighton), a photographer and former manufacturer of photographic equipment. From around 1878, the studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton went under the name of Walls & Co.

At the time of the 1881 census, Rosetta Walls was residing at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton with the recently widowed photographer William Henry Hilton. ( William Hilton's wife Sarah Ann had died early in 1881 at the age of 53). On the census return, Mrs Rosetta J. Walls is described as a forty-five year old widow operating a "Photographic Business" at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton. Recorded jointly as the "Head of Household", William H. Hilton is entered on the census return as a "Photographic Artist", aged 50.

Mrs Rosetta Walls married her business partner towards the end of 1881. [The marriage of  Rosetta Jane Walls and William Henry Hilton was registered in Brighton during the 4th Quarter of 1881]. From the time of her marriage to William Hilton, the photographic studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton traded under the name of "W. H. Hilton".

Mrs Rosetta Jane Hilton died in Brighton during the 2nd Quarter of 1885, at the age of 49. The photographic portrait studio which had been set up at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton by her first husband around 1869, closed for business shortly after her death.

[ABOVE] Portrait of an unknown man seated at a writing table, photographed by W. Walls of 11 Kensington Place, Brighton (c1875). Negative No.9,087.

[ABOVE] The trade plate of W. H. Hilton, Art Photographer of No. 11 Kensington Place, Brighton, taken from the reverse of a carte-de-visite (c1882).

In 1855, William Henry Hilton married Sarah Ann Halls (born 1828, Brighton), the daughter of Sarah and William Halls of Brighton. William and Sarah Ann Hilton went on to have four children - William Henry Hilton junior (born, 1855, Brighton), Annie Eliza Hilton (born 1857, Brighton), Frank Hilton (born 1859, Brighton) and Charles Edward Hilton (born1857, Brighton).

William Henry Hilton started a business as a "photographic instrument maker" and by 1859 he had entered into a business partnership with photographer Francis Ross Wells at 27 St James's Street, Brighton. William Henry Hilton struggled financially and in January 1860 he was declared insolvent .

William Henry Hilton kept his interest in photography and, sometime after 1873, he found employment with Mrs Rosetta Jane Walls, the proprietor of a photographic portrait studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton, which traded under the name of her late husband - "W. Walls". Originally employed as a photographer at the Walls studio in Kensington Place, William Henry Hilton eventually joined Mrs Walls as a business partner and from around 1878 the firm was known as Walls & Co.

Early in 1881, William Henry Hilton's wife, Mrs Sarah Ann Hilton, died at the age of 53. When the census was taken on the evening of 3rd April 1881, William Henry Hilton was residing with Mrs Rosetta Jane Walls at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton. On the census return, Mrs Rosetta J. Walls is described as a forty-five year old widow operating a "Photographic Business". William H. Hilton, who is recorded as the joint "Head of Household", is entered on the census return as a fifty year old widower, earning his living as a "Photographic Artist". Before the year was out, William Henry Hilton had married his business partner, Rosetta Walls. [The marriage of William Henry Hilton and Rosetta Jane Walls was registered in Brighton during the 4th Quarter of 1881]. After their marriage, the photographic studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton, went under the name of W. H. Hilton.

Mrs Rosetta Jane Hilton, William Hilton's second wife, died in Brighton in 1885 at the age of 49. William Hilton's photographic portrait studio at 11 Kensington Place, Brighton, closed around the time of his wife's death and does not appear in Brighton trade directories after 1884.

When the 1901 census was taken, seventy year old William Henry Hilton was living on his "own means" in Brighton.

William Henry Hilton died in Brighton in 1920 at the age of 89.  [The death of William Henry Hilton was registered in Brighton during the 3rd Quarter of 1920].