The crowds of workers are painted in Lowry's characteristic style as "matchstalk" figures, all walking in a uniform direction towards the focal point of the factory gate to the left of the picture.

In the background can be seen the turret of the Mather building, and in the foreground, the ends of a pair of red Manchester Corporation buses protrude into the field of view.

[3][4] The pale-coloured ground was previously thought to represent a layer of snow, but art historians now consider this to be an evocation of industrial haze.

[9][3][4] The WAAC wanted to reflect the important role of heavy industry in the war effort, and so Lowry's contribution was a scene of workers going into an engineering factory.

It is now on public display in the Imperial War Museum North, alongside works by other artists such as Flora Lion and Anna Airy.

It depicts a similar scene to his 1943 oil painting, with crowds of workers filing into factory buildings, and the two works have some common architectural elements.