William Walcot was the best known architectural draughtsman of the 1920s and 1930s, executing presentation drawings for architects who included Herbert Baker, Aston Webb and Edwin Lutyens (for whom he made drawings of the Viceroy's House, New Delhi). His treatment of presentation drawings as works of art rather than technical plans led to commissions from the Fine Art Society to visit Rome and Venice, tours which resulted in eight solo shows. He was also the architect of the Hotel Metropole, Moscow (1898).
The Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, built to house the trials of all civil cases, were designed by G.E. Street, and completed in 1882. Faced in Portland stone, they can be seen to the left of this watercolour. The church of St. Clement Danes, designed by Wren, and in which Dr. Johnson and Boswell were regular worshippers, stands to the right.