diff --git a/Doc/library/http.server.rst b/Doc/library/http.server.rst
index ee1c37c6319..323ee9f5d36 100644
--- a/Doc/library/http.server.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/http.server.rst
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ of which this module provides three different variants:
          delays, it now always returns the IP address.
 
 
-.. class:: SimpleHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server)
+.. class:: SimpleHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server, directory=None)
 
    This class serves files from the current directory and below, directly
    mapping the directory structure to HTTP requests.
@@ -323,6 +323,10 @@ of which this module provides three different variants:
       ``application/octet-stream``. The mapping is used case-insensitively,
       and so should contain only lower-cased keys.
 
+   .. attribute:: directory
+
+      If not specified, the directory to serve is the current working directory.
+
    The :class:`SimpleHTTPRequestHandler` class defines the following methods:
 
    .. method:: do_HEAD()
@@ -397,6 +401,14 @@ following command causes the server to bind to localhost only::
 .. versionadded:: 3.4
     ``--bind`` argument was introduced.
 
+By default, server uses the current directory. The option ``-d/--directory``
+specifies a directory to which it should serve the files. For example,
+the following command uses a specific directory::
+
+        python -m http.server --directory /tmp/
+
+.. versionadded:: 3.7
+    ``--directory`` specify alternate directory
 
 .. class:: CGIHTTPRequestHandler(request, client_address, server)
 
@@ -442,4 +454,3 @@ following command causes the server to bind to localhost only::
 the ``--cgi`` option::
 
         python -m http.server --cgi 8000
-
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
index c305e5a94cb..3195d9022ee 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.7.rst
@@ -139,6 +139,11 @@ If-Modified-Since header. The server returns the 304 response status if the
 target file was not modified after the time specified in the header.
 (Contributed by Pierre Quentel in :issue:`29654`.)
 
+Add the parameter ``directory`` to the :class:`~http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler`
+and the ``--directory`` to the command line of the module :mod:`~http.server`.
+With this parameter, the server serves the specified directory, by default it uses the current working directory.
+(Contributed by Stéphane Wirtel and Julien Palard in :issue:`28707`.)
+
 locale
 ------
 
diff --git a/Lib/http/server.py b/Lib/http/server.py
index 7b3e701fb7a..b1151a2b654 100644
--- a/Lib/http/server.py
+++ b/Lib/http/server.py
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ import socketserver
 import sys
 import time
 import urllib.parse
+from functools import partial
 
 from http import HTTPStatus
 
@@ -634,6 +635,12 @@ class SimpleHTTPRequestHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
 
     server_version = "SimpleHTTP/" + __version__
 
+    def __init__(self, *args, directory=None, **kwargs):
+        if directory is None:
+            directory = os.getcwd()
+        self.directory = directory
+        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
+
     def do_GET(self):
         """Serve a GET request."""
         f = self.send_head()
@@ -806,7 +813,7 @@ class SimpleHTTPRequestHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
         path = posixpath.normpath(path)
         words = path.split('/')
         words = filter(None, words)
-        path = os.getcwd()
+        path = self.directory
         for word in words:
             if os.path.dirname(word) or word in (os.curdir, os.pardir):
                 # Ignore components that are not a simple file/directory name
@@ -1234,6 +1241,9 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     parser.add_argument('--bind', '-b', default='', metavar='ADDRESS',
                         help='Specify alternate bind address '
                              '[default: all interfaces]')
+    parser.add_argument('--directory', '-d', default=os.getcwd(),
+                        help='Specify alternative directory '
+                        '[default:current directory]')
     parser.add_argument('port', action='store',
                         default=8000, type=int,
                         nargs='?',
@@ -1242,5 +1252,6 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     if args.cgi:
         handler_class = CGIHTTPRequestHandler
     else:
-        handler_class = SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
+        handler_class = partial(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler,
+                                directory=args.directory)
     test(HandlerClass=handler_class, port=args.port, bind=args.bind)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py b/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
index dafcb0cbd56..cdc52021013 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_httpservers.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import urllib.parse
 import tempfile
 import time
 import datetime
+from unittest import mock
 from io import BytesIO
 
 import unittest
@@ -782,7 +783,11 @@ class CGIHTTPServerTestCase(BaseTestCase):
 
 
 class SocketlessRequestHandler(SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
-    def __init__(self):
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        request = mock.Mock()
+        request.makefile.return_value = BytesIO()
+        super().__init__(request, None, None)
+
         self.get_called = False
         self.protocol_version = "HTTP/1.1"