Covent Garden Labourers (1877): Art, History and Details

Covent Garden Labourers (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:

Covent Garden workers, whose day started before 5 a.m., were divided into job-workers or odd-men—who were paid for each parcel they delivered and thus received little income in the off-seasons—and a much smaller group of salaried workers who were paid year-round to create arrangements and stock and help run the stalls.

Object facts

• Title: Covent Garden Labourers
• Date: 1877
• Creator attribution: John Thomson (Scottish, 1837–1921)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: woodburytype
• Dimensions: Image: 11.4 x 8.6 cm (4 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.); Paper: 11.4 x 8.6 cm (4 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.); Mounted: 27 x 20.7 cm (10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2019.53

A detail from the museum

The wholesale flower market at Covent Garden contained over 500 stands that employed around 4,000 men as growers and deliverymen.

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.