Photographic Advertising Limited was an advertising photography studio and stock image supplier based in London and Manchester in the 20th century. The company was founded in 1926. However, the company had its origins earlier in the decade: the Chief Photographer and Managing Director George Mewes had been a photojournalist and a documentary film-maker. In the early 1920s, he and the other founding members of staff were employees and shareholders of a film studio, the Castle Film Company in Ealing. Other founding members were Walter Nunn (Company Secretary) and Oliver Locker Lampson (Chairman). The company moved to studios at 108 Victoria Street, in Victoria, London. They had large and extensive studios to allow the complex sets advertising photography often required. Their studios were furnished with room sets, household objects and, after a large number of commissions from the Amalgamated Press Group, a fully fitted studio kitchen. The company's clients included Canadian Pacific, Swan Hellenistic, Union Castle Cruises, Cunard and various automobile companies. The company expanded into a second studio in Manchester before the second world war. Their Manchester studio was based at 196 Deansgate and was similarly equipped and designed to serve Northern clients. Gordon La Masurier, who joined the company in 1931, was sent to set up the studios. Less successful than anticipated, it closed shortly after the war. The London studio stayed open with a skeleton staff during the second world war. The company took a lot of magazine photography in the 1950s, and worked for catalogue companies including Littlewoods when times were tough. The company moved to new London studios in Murray House, also in Victoria, in 1961. However, the 1960s saw the gradual decline of the company, and the company was put into voluntary liquidation in 1970 and dissolved in 1977.