J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

With the page turned horizontally, the view is northwards along Clarence Place, along the quay on the west side of Dover Harbour towards Crosswall, as shown on maps of the time. The Drop Redoubt on the Western Heights rise beyond at the centre, with the outline of Dover Castle in the distance to the north-east on the right. Little remains of the original street plan among car parks and port facilities. Of the King’s Head Hotel, labelled in the foreground, only a fragment of the far end of its frontage remains, attached to the corner of the later Cinque Port Arms; the other inscription, ‘Podevin’s Inn’, likely taken from signage, records the surname of the licensees for most of the nineteenth century.1 The hotel is seen on the left of the view from a little further east on folio 254 recto opposite (D19344).

As foliated, this is the first of nearly forty pages towards the end of the sketchbook devoted to aspects of Dover and its castle, running on to folio 272 verso (D19343–D19381). For Turner’s many other Dover views in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 2 recto (D18843). Another Dover inn is noted on folio 268 recto (D19372).