Sunnyside Workshops

Douglas, Isle of Man; furniture makers, metalworkers (1899-1905)

Sunnyside Workshops was an arts and crafts-style workshop co-founded in Douglas, Isle of Man, by the designer Archibald James Knox in 1899 with his patron Wilson James-Ashburner. The aim was to produce high-quality furniture and metalwork in a style inspired by William Morris, the workshop employed skilled artisans, but it ultimately struggled commercially and closed after Knox returned to teaching in the south of England, c. 1905.

A desk made in 1902 when Knox moved to Sybil Cottage in Sulby, later found in the house of his former housekeeper, and another writring desk made as a wedding gift from Knox to his friend and fellow Manx artist, Alfred James Collister, were included in exhibition Order & Beauty, Manx Museum, 2025-26.