Canaletto arrived in London in 1746 and remained there for most of the next nine years. This painting is a pendant to a view in the opposite direction, towards the City also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400504). This pair was the last by Canaletto and the only English views to be acquired by the artist's great friend and patron, Joseph Smith, who was British Consul in Venice. They are on a Venetian type of canvas with a russet ground rather than the light grey the artist used for most of his English paintings. This suggests that Canaletto painted them when he returned to Venice briefly in 1750-1. The view is not based on the drawing also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 907559), but on the slightly different view in an engraving by Johann Sebastian Müller after Canaletto (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection). Canaletto adjusted the composition to suit the much grander scale of the painting.

The view is from the terrace of Old Somerset House looking up the river to Westminster Bridge. Immediately beyond the terrace is the wooden tower of York Buildings Waterworks, built after 1675 and demolished in 1829, and the Banqueting House, half hidden by trees. The skyline is dominated by Westminster Abbey and the four towers of St John's, Smith Square. Westminster Bridge had been completed in 1748, and links to the timber yards visible on the south bank. A number of boats, including two quite elaborate semi-state barges can be seen on the river.

The pair of views relates not only to Canaletto's Venetian scenes, but also to the long tradition of topographical views of London dating back to the 1600s. Earlier engraved prospects of London were usually printed on several sheets to include the whole riverside from Westminster to the Tower. During the last century artists had chosen to depict the city stretched out in a line from a bird's eye view over the south bank. Canaletto adopted a high viewpoint for his earlier views of the river but brought the viewpoint almost to ground level here. The great curve of the river dominates the composition which also manages to include all the principal features to be seen from the terrace of Somerset House. When the two views are placed side by side they create a long panoramic view of the curve of the river, the equivalent on the Thames of Canaletto's wide-angled views of the Bacino in Venice.