Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 601, Box A

South Kensington, Site of the Brompton Oratory

Photograph
03/03/1857 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSouth Kensington, Site of the Brompton Oratory (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph, South Kensington, Site of the Brompton Oratory, albumen print, 1857
Physical description
A sepia-coloured photograph of a building under construction surrounded by scaffolding. A fence surrounds the structure. Painted on the fence, and partially cropped is 'SOUTH KENSINGTON'. A crowd of men and women stand adjacent to the opening in the fence.
Dimensions
  • Mount height: 38.2cm
  • Mount width: 53.3cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'England & Wales / London: South Kensington / 3 March 1857 / Victoria and Alberm Museum (site of): Brompton Oratory, etc / March 3rd 1857 / Exterior of Oratory from [illeg.] / South Kensington Museum. Prog' (mount)
  • 'A.b. LONDON' (department classification label, lower right mount)
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.
Collection
Accession number
33957

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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