The carts are in the foreground in the dry bed of the river. Stone bridge in left centre of the drawing and rows of houses on either bank of the river.
A row of houses, shored up and in course of demolition, the steeple of St. Mary-le-Strand rises above them towards the right. In the middle house are the inscriptions; MIDNIGHT SOUP, THE SALVATION ARMY FOOD DEPOT, FOOD. The tall chimney-pot, 42 mm from the left end of the plate, is roughly indicated by three long lines which do not meet at the top.
A row of houses, shored up and in course of demolition, the steeple of St. Mary-le-Strand rises above them towards the right. In the middle house are the inscriptions; MIDNIGHT SOUP, THE SALVATION ARMY FOOD DEPOT, FOOD. The roof darkened and the upper edge of wall tonight of steeple retouched and strengthened.
Lofty houses line both sides of the street. In front of a house on the right scaffolding is erected, containing a temporary outside staircase of curious construction, the motive of the etching.
Various conveyances are stacked under a shed, open in front, which is carried along two sides of a stable yard. On a board to the left against a house behind the shed we read "Job Masters, Moore & Sons." More to the right are two gable-ended lofts ; the second carries a dovecote and a weathercock. A man stands near a ladder which gives access to the second loft. In the corner of the yard an ostler holds a horse by the bridle and talks to a seated friend.
Men carry baskets to and from a sailing boat across a narrow plank bridge. Smaller boats lie to the left, and a distant church tower is seen across the water between their sails. A boom has been added to the boat which was introduced in the second state; it is slung from the farthest to the left of the three ropes, and the middle rope has been doubled and that on the right made continuous.
Mrs. Dodd holding in her arms her little grandson, Stephen Bone, in profile to the left. A cut impression of this portion of the undivided plate was described in the first provisional list of Bone's etchings (Die Graphischen Künste, 1906) under a separate number, 175, as Stephen in profile. It was at one time the artist's intention to cut the plate and print the baby's head separately, but this was never done.