In these there is little attempt at pictorial effect, but their extreme accuracy in the architectural details renders them of great interest and value as topographical records.

From 1783 to 1789 he resided in Conduit Street in London where at an evening drawing class which he held there, he received as pupils, Thomas Girtin and a young J M W Turner, whose father brought him to be taught on perspective.

He made a few of the drawings for William Watts's Seats of the Nobility and Gentry published in 1779,[1] and executed some large aquatints of buildings in both London and Bath, being one of the first to avail himself of the newly introduced art of aquatinta for the purpose of multiplying copies of his views.

He also painted some scenes for the Covent Garden Theatre.In 1792 Malton published the work by which he is now best known, 'A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster', illustrated with a hundred aquatint plates.

A portrait of his son Charles as a child was drawn and water-coloured by Sir Thomas Lawrence; it was engraved by F C Lewis.

Charles (born 1788) was an apprentice of and worked with Sir John Soane on the architectural drawings of the Bank of England.