View of London from Greenwich

The view of the City of London from Greenwich was a popular one and John Glover (1767-1849) painted it frequently. Many of his sketches of this view are held in sketchbooks at the State Library of New South Wales. However this drawing does not present the usual view of Queen’s House and the Royal Naval College.

Instead the perspective seems to be from the southwest of Greenwich Park as the buildings in the centre are likely to be lime kilns at Deptford, as shown on the map of 1746 produced by John Roche. The distinctive triangular shaped roofing suggests this identification. The church of St Paul’s Deptford would therefore be the building on the left with the twin towers of Greenwich Hospital on the right.

Limekilns in the early 1800s were smallscale, built to make mortar for building, and were usually situated near water for easy transportation.
On the reverse of the drawing are four small sketches of scenes in Tasmania where Glover lived from 1830 onwards.