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The fi rm was founded by Robert Hills (1821–82),
born in Lambeth, South London, who started his career
with the china & glass merchants Spiers & Son in Oxord
in 1850. Spiers opened a branch shop as perfumers in
1851, and Hills was appointed manager in the follow-
ing year, combining this with work as a hairdresser and
wigmaker, as well as agent for the British Empire Fire
Offi ce. In mid-May 1856, Hills moved into photography,
and opened the Oxford Photographic Gallery a few doors
from Spiers’ shop in Oxford’s Cornmarket By the start
of 1857, Hills was advertising his collodion portraits in
“Jackson’s Oxford Journal,” and later in the same year,
photographed the local militia on parade, as well as the
fi rst in a lengthy series of Oxford Colleges.
The studio was partly damaged by fi re in April 1860,
and Hills took the opportunity to separate it from the
hairdressing and perfumery businesses, which were
relocated to new premises on the opposite side of the
street. The increasing volume of photographic work,
even with a staff of 15, led Hills to seek a partner, and
in June 1860, he was joined by John Henry Saunders
(1836–90), a former assistant. The hairdressing business
was fi nally sold in March 1862.
The 1860s proved a busy period for Hills & Saunders.
In June 1863 they photographed Queen Victoria’s visit
to Oxford, and subsequently were invited to photo-
graph the Royal family at Windsor. The Cornmarket
shop was considerably extended in 1864, and the fi rm
received the Royal Warrant in April 1867. Hills was
elected councillor for the West Ward of Oxford in 1869,
and opened branch studios in Aldershot, Cambridge,
Harrow & Eton, as well as Sandhurst later. Outside
Oxford, however, their most successful studio was in
London, opened in 1868 with premises in Porchester
Terrace, Bayswater, under the management of Alexander
Cowan (1839–1922), who as a young man had worked
for Paul Pretsch’s Galvanographic Studio, and would
subsequently manage Marion’s vast dryplate factory at
Southgate in the 1880s. By the end of the 1860s, Hills
had moved with his growing family to a mansion on the
outskirts of Cambridge, though he continued to sleep on
the Oxford premises 3 or 4 nights a week.
The London studio moved a few doors up Porchester
Terrace in 1869, but was destroyed in a fi re in Api1
- It was rebuilt on a larger scale, and continued
until 1886. In 1893, it moved to Sloane Street, Chelsea,
where its opening was featured in “Westminster Bud-
get.” The article gives a fl avour of Hills & Saunders’
upper class tastes:
In the Sloane Street studios there is (no) make-believe
sumptuousness. Everything is genuine; the curtains and
draperies which fall in soft, seeping folds, wherever they
are required, are of real brocades and other art stuffs.
The tall palma... are very much alive. The gleam of red
copper vases and art—pottery pedestals brightens thedim light of the rooms. Thick carpets cover the fl oor, and
all round the walls are pictures old and new of Royalties
and eminent men and women of the past and present,
of beauties and beasts—that is to say, of prancing steeds,
which their proud owners have caused to be immortalised
by means of photographs.”Robert Hills died in Oxford July 27 1882, and his
share of the business was continued by his widow, Ann
(1820–1905) and son Henry James Hills (1857–99).
John Henry Saunders died at Gerrards Cross, Bucking-
hamshire September 15 1890, and his widow, Elizabeth
(1846–1918) with 3 of his children, Frank, Eleanor &
Catherine continued his interests. Hills left an estate
valued at almost £30,000 (c £1.8 million today), while
Saunders’ estate was sworn at £10,300 (c. £600, 000
today). The premature death of Henry Hills in 1899,
however, caused the business to be sold out of the
founding families ;the Cambridge branch had been
bankrupted in 1892, and the London studio closed in- The Oxford fl agship branch, still on its original
premises, soldiered on into the 1930s; in February 1931
it was sold to the rival studio of Gillman & Soame in
Oxford, who fi nally closed it in 1935. The branches in
Eton & Harrow continued to trade almost to the present
day, buoyed by lucrative contracts with the local boys’
public schools - indeed, the Eton premises are owned
by the school. Both branches were acquired by Richard
Schemansky in the 1990s; Harrow closed shortly after,
but the Eton branch continues in the Hills & Saunders
name as a reminder of its former history.
The educational and Royal connections established
by Hills & Saunders have ensured the survival of a con-
siderable body of work. Both Eton College & Harrow
School possess collections of both single and group por-
traits of school personnel from the 1860s to the present,
sections of which have been published in various school
histories over the last 50 years. The Royal portraits are
housed in the Windsor Castle Archives, and have also
been widely published in recent years. The National
Gallery has a small collection of negatives of celebrities,
mostly from the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
David Webb
See also: Dry Plate Negatives: Non-Gelatine,
Including Dry Collodion; and Victoria, Queen and
Albert, Prince Consort.
Further Reading
At home. Messrs Hills & Saunders at Porchester Terrace. Pho-
tographic News, May 7, 1880, 218–219.
At home. Mr Alexander Cowan’s laboratory in Porchester Terrace.
Photographic, News March 2, 1883, 131–132.
Photographic industries. A West-End studio. British Journal of
Photography, July 18, 1884, 454–456.
A palace of photographic art. A chat at Messrs Hills & Saunders.
Westminster Budget, June 23, 1893, 34.