A view of the Royal Observatory around 1830 from the eastern side of the hill on which it sits in Greenwich Park, looking directly at the closed main gate, with Flamsteed House seen beyond shrubbery within the encircling courtyard wall. The light suggests a fine summer evening. The double chimney stacks (no longer present) of one of the earlier rear extensions to the House are visible, as is the east pavilion, now holding the reconstructed camera obscura. A path winds from the artist's position toward the gate and around the north face of the building where a group of four Scotch firs stand at the brow of the hill. While the drawing is undated it does not include the time-ball erected on the east turret of Flamsteed House in 1833 (unless Varley deliberately omitted it) and the general style suggests production within the previous ten years.

Two girls sit on the grass, left; four other figures walk along the path towards the fir trees, centre, and what may be a Greenwich Pensioner sits with a girl at the top of the slope, right. Several sheep cropping the grass are also shown. The lower part of the Park, right, is shown with tree cover, and the Thames and London lie beyond under a fine sky. The towers or Westminster Abbey, of St Alfege, Greenwich, and the dome of St Paul's are visible under the fir trees. Several windmills are also distantly visible on the north bank of the Thames, right, notably one on the point of Millwall. The drawing bears the artist's scratched-out signature, 'J Varley', lower right.