While Prout is now best-known for his European townscapes and architectural studies, much of the early part of his career was focused closer to home. Having moved to London from Plymouth in 1802, he made a living largely by teaching pupils. In 1809 he was paid £50 a year for teaching at Dr Glennie's Academy in Dulwich Grove (at which Lord Byron had been a student).
Although now a south London suburb, Dulwich was at that time a rural village, with its common a frequent haunt of highwaymen. From 1811 Prout lived in Stockwell, which was then also outside London, about three miles across the fields from Dulwich. In 1811 he exhibited an oil of 'Willow near Dulwich' at the Society of Painters in Water Colours.