William Chettle, a grocer, and Sarah his wife lived and traded at the corner of Pratt Road and Oliver Cromwell Road. In 1891 their son Walter, aged 14, was already a photographer.

After spending some time in Ireland, Walter returned to England, and began trading at 22 Higham Road, where the whole family lived, his father having retired from the grocery trade. He took his sister Emily and brother Leonard as his apprentices. Walter Chettle died aged 38, in 1914 and his wife took on the business but had sold it to Ernest Virgo by 1916.

Trading from the shop next door at 24, was William Chettle. He was a wholesale and retail tobacconist, hairdresser and perfumier. [Walter's younger brother]