A pencil study made from the centre of the Greenwich Pier pontoon, looking west (upstream). The western flight of waterstairs are on the right with an advertisement board (annotated as 'Advt Board') on the railings above them. A figure leans on the railings looking down towards the western (of two) ticket kiosks on the pontoon. In the background are the now vanished waterfront buildings on the north side of Brewhouse Lane between Garden Stairs (not seen, round the corner of the Pier) and Billingsgate Dock, with a three-masted sailing vessel moored alongside them, stern-on to the viewer. On the far left, the corner of the Ship Hotel is lightly sketched in. On the right are small boats in front of a mooring pylon in the river.

The drawing also bears colour annotations 'Brick', 'Grey', 'R' and 'G' and is inscribed bottom right 'Greenwich 16 September 1887' with '18/87' crossed out. In the top right corner is a separate small study of a moored three-master with her sails clewed up and Thames barges around her. The whole is in a ruled pencil frame and complements PAF6252, which bears the same date and is a study of the same subject from above, at the west corner of the quayside shown here, looking downstream (east) toward the Royal Naval College.