Woolwich Dockyard was built in 1514 by Henry VIII for the construction of his famous ship 'Henry Grace a Dieu' or 'Great Harry'. Royal Navy vessels were built at the yard until its closure in 1869. This view, by Nicholas Pocock, gives an indication of the scale of the enterprise by the late 18th century. The area around the dockyard was known as the Warren and consisted of workshops, warehouses, timber yards, barracks, foundries and the nearby Royal Arsenal. Pocock and Joseph Farington were commissioned by the Navy Board in 1785 to do a set of oil views of the Royal Dockyards, to hang in their boardroom as visual aids to discusssions. All were to be based on drawings made by William White, the master mast-maker at Deptford but he became ill while doing that of Portsmouth which ended the matter. Sheerness, the sixth dockyard, is not mentioned in the surviving record but presumably would have been included. Farington did Chatham and Deptford by 1794. Pocock dated this one 1790, and was paid £84 for it, and also for one of Plymouth which he finished in 1798. [PvdM amended 2/12]