An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials (1877): Art, History and Details

An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials (1877) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Thomson (Scottish, 1837–1921).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

According to John Thomson’s collaborator, journalist Adolphe Smith, the dealers in this neighborhood were sources of last resort for those trying to sell items that had already been rejected by pawnbrokers. They were also where “the majority of those individuals who earn a promiscuous livelihood in the streets of London succeed in clothing themselves for a minimum outlay.”

Object facts

• Title: An Old Clothes Shop, Seven Dials
• Date: 1877
• Creator attribution: John Thomson (Scottish, 1837–1921)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: woodburytype
• Dimensions: Image: 11.5 x 9 cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.); Paper: 11.5 x 9 cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.); Mounted: 27.1 x 20.8 cm (10 11/16 x 8 3/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2019.51

A detail from the museum

When this photo was taken, Seven Dials, a London neighborhood linking Covent Garden to Soho, was a slum that housed shops that bought and sold used clothing and furniture.

Collection credit

Photography Discretionary Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.