A view of Custom House Wharf from the water. Custom House towers on the right, protected by a long sea-wall. Barges fill the wharf, and buildings line the shore. Suggestions of masts and ships are depicted throughout the left and background. Number six of twelve etchings from The Grey River portfolio.

Mortimer Menpes was an Australian and British artist whose etchings were influenced by Japanese culture and etching, and the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. In 1886 Menpes collaborated with two writers Justin McCarthy and Rosa Praed to produce The Grey River, an illustrated book about the River Thames. The book was published in 1889, and while McCarthy and Praed’s text centred on history, many of Menpes’s illustrations show industrial scenes, such as wharves, dredges, barges and warehouses. A highly prolific artist, Menpes etched more than 500 plates on various subjects.