Fletcher’s Yard was the site of one of the oldest firms on the Thames, as Fletcher had set up a shipbuilding business at Shadwell in the eighteenth century. They moved to Limehouse in 1818. As Fletcher, Son and Fearnall, they became pioneering steamship builders, and eventually switched to ship repairs.

This scene is of a ship in dry dock. Workmen are shown chopping wood, and pushing wheelbarrows. Piles of timber beams lie on the side of the dry dock. To the right is a large chimney. The dry dock is surrounded by warehouses and other buildings. In the background ships can be seen on the Thames with housing on the far bank.

The English landscape painter Charles Deane lived and worked in London. He exhibited in almost all Royal Academy exhibitions between 1815 and 1851 and specialised in views of the Thames and Bristol.