Cranes punctuate the centre of the image, creating a strong oblique line above the wharf. Suggestions of figures working are visible throughout, including men moving large wheels across the wharf. The central structures are strongly etched, while St. Paul’s in the distance and the sky are lightly etched with soft edges to create an atmosphere of London fog. Number three 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.