'The "Red Lion" in the Dock and West Side of Greenwich Hospital, prior to 1804' (caricature)

This view looks south from the east side of the area now called Monument Gardens, behind the east end of modern Greenwich Pier, before all the buildings shown on the right were cleared away from around 1830 onward in the redevelopment of old Greenwich by Greenwich Hospital. The Hospital was founded on a very restricted site and over the 18th and early 19th century acquired much of the town centre to its west, both to increase its grounds and for commercial redevelopment to support its charitable care of veteran naval seamen. The open area in the centre is today the western part of the Old Royal Naval College grounds, north-east of the Dreadnought building and Old Brewery. The inn on the far corner has a sign suggesting it was called the 'Three Tuns', and the roadway going right in front of it may be old Stableyard Street, though Rowlandson may have taken slight liberties in composition. His view is from close to the former Ship Dock which lay roughly in the angle of the modern riverfront and the east face or Greenwich Pier (built from 1836). The dock seems to have taken its name from the Ship Tavern, closest to it at the end of Fisher Lane (parallel with Stableyard Street) but not shown here. The Hospital's original perimeter wall is shown with the West Gates of 1746, topped by celestial and terrestrial globes, in their original position: they were moved west onto the present line of King William Walk in 1850 after all the ground shown in this drawing was taken inside the Hospital perimeter. Between the walls and the western facade of the King William Court lie the former Hospital drying yards (where washing was done and hung out) and Pensioners' ablution blocks.

Greenwich has for centuries been a place of popular resort, within easy reach of central London by river or road, and attracted all classes of society to see the progress of the building of the Hospital (completed in 1751) especially when the Painted Hall ceiling became visible to the public after 1712. The Royal Park behind, where the Royal Observatory crowns the hill as shown here (with Park visitors climbing the steep slope), was also increasingly open to the public in the 18th century, especially at the time of Greenwich Fair in the spring. The town was consequently a place of inns, tea and coffee rooms, catering to all levels of society, and the crowd shown is characteristically varied, with a prosperous couple in a smart curricle (lower left, with a groom behind), public coaches and carriers' carts with various classes of passenger. The crowd shown similarly includes all classes, from respectable people in the upper rooms of the Red Lion, to Greenwich Pensioners and local ones below. The figure with his back turned, in a red jacket and slop breeches, lower right, is undoubtedly a young naval seamen.

This drawing was presented to Greenwich Hospital in 1847 by a donor called Francis Hobler, and its title appears as given above in subsequent catalogues of its Naval Gallery collection (the last printed in 1922, before the collection was transferred to the care of the NMM in 1936). The fact that the 'Red Lion' was close to the Ship Dock is presumably the source of the drawing's received title. Why it is said to be specifically before 1804 is not now clear but presumably because of some feature shown that did not survive longer.