Located at 181–183 King's Road, the gallery was founded in 1905 by Jack Knewstub,[1][2] who had previously been an administrator of the Chelsea School of Art.
[3] The gallery, with two exhibition rooms, shared its building with Charles Chenil & Co Ltd., a seller of art supplies and picture frames.
[1] The ultimate failure of the enterprise bankrupted Knewstub, who some years later was seen by a former gallery patron peddling vegetables from a cart.
[10][11][12] Henry Tonks persuaded his former pupil, Edna Clarke Hall, to hold a one-woman show at the gallery in 1914.
This show was a critical success, with one review describing her as a 'sensitive and expressive draughtswoman who reaches a masterly plane' and admiring her 'individual and instinctive' use of colour.