Rowlandson often represented town centres and markets such as those at Norwich, Smithfield and Covent Garden. Rowlandson used the marketplace, focus of town activity, as an ideal setting for the detailed essays of social observation on which his reputation as chronicler of 18th and early 19th century life is built. As such, the present drawing falls squarely into the epitome of the artist's output: a dog chases a horse in the foreground, as the Portsmouth to Gosport express canters past; another coash waits outside an inn, loaded with passengers ready for departure; soldiers stand drinking and talking with the local townsfolk; further off two workers with brooms sweep up near an elderly cleric who makes his way across the square, while a group of shoppers gathers under the shelter of the town hall portico.
The genius of this watercolour is in the effortless informality with which Rowlandson has depicted such an eventful scene.

Rowlandson drew several scenes in Kingston Marketplace. There are two in the museum at Kingston, including a pen and ink sketch for the present watercolour, one was with Sabin Galleries in 1939 and one was in the collection of Joseph Grego.