William Wyllie and his wife were present at the lavish opening ceremony for Tower Bridge on 30 June 1894. Here he recorded the procession of ships passing through, including the Trinity House yacht 'Irene', the gunboat HMS 'Landrail', the 'Bismarck' and the 'Clacton Bell'. Tower Bridge became one of his favourite Thames subjects. He painted a large picture of this event (now in the Guildhall Art Gallery) and through this he became friendly with the bridge’s architect, Sir John Wolfe-Barry.

This work, signed ‘W L Wyllie’ lower left, was exhibited in the Special Exhibition Gallery, October 1974.