Fountains of London
the sculpted fountains, most of them mid-century, and where each one stands
London is not a fountain city in the way Rome is, and the weather is usually blamed. What it does have is a small group of sculpted fountains, most of them from the 1940s to the 1960s and several paid for by the same fund, which are genuinely good and almost entirely unvisited. These are the artistic ones, not the drinking fountains, which are a separate subject.
One fund, several fountains
A striking number of London's mid-century fountains were paid for by the Constance Fund, set up in memory of the painter Sigismund Goetze and named after his widow, a pianist who directed it until her death in 1951. From 1946 the fund chose to commission only fountains, which is why a cluster of them appears in the parks within twenty years of each other.
That is also why they look like a set. They were commissioned by one body with a consistent taste, at a moment when public sculpture in Britain was briefly confident about the human figure.
The entries
The Triton Fountain
Queen Mary's Gardens, Regent's Park NW1 Nearest station: Regent's Park
In Queen Mary's Gardens, from 1950, by William McMillan, and paid for by the Constance Fund in memory of Sigismund Goetze. It is the most conventionally beautiful of the group and sits in the part of Regent's Park most people walk through on the way to somewhere else.
Venus
Sloane Square SW1 Nearest station: Sloane Square
A 1953 fountain in Sloane Square, Grade II listed, whose basin shows Charles II and Nell Gwynn beside the Thames, an unusual subject for a fountain in a shopping square. This is the work the Wikipedia article on Sloane Square cites.
The Trafalgar Square fountains
Trafalgar Square WC2 Nearest station: Charing Cross
The present basins replaced Barry's earlier ones and commemorate two First World War admirals, Jellicoe and Beatty. They are much larger than they look in photographs and are the only fountains in London that most visitors could name.
The Joy of Life
Hyde Park, Park Lane side W1 Nearest station: Hyde Park Corner
A 1963 bronze group by T. B. Huxley-Jones at the Park Lane edge of Hyde Park, again from the Constance Fund, and loosely modelled on the Neptune fountain in Bologna. Four figures in the water and two children above them.
Artemis
Rotten Row, Hyde Park W1 Nearest station: Hyde Park Corner
A bronze of the huntress on Rotten Row by Feodora Gleichen, who in 1922 became the first woman elected to the Royal Society of British Sculptors, posthumously, having died that year. Worth stopping at for the biography as much as the bronze.
The Marble Arch fountains
Marble Arch W2 Nearest station: Marble Arch
Not artistic and included for completeness: the fountains at Marble Arch were reopened in 2009 after a long period switched off, on an island that was supposed to become a commemorative feature and did not.
Questions
What was the Constance Fund?
A trust established in memory of the painter Sigismund Goetze and named after his widow Constance, who directed it until 1951. From 1946 it commissioned fountains exclusively, which is why several of London's best mid-century fountains share a patron and a period.
What is the difference between these and drinking fountains?
Purpose and date. The sculpted fountains here are ornamental works commissioned as art, mostly post-war. London's drinking fountains are Victorian public-health infrastructure, put up by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association from 1859 onwards, and they are a separate and much larger subject.
Do they all still run?
Most of them, seasonally. Fountains in the royal parks are generally turned off in winter to prevent freezing damage, and any of them can be off for maintenance. The sculpture is worth the visit either way, which is not true of a fountain whose interest is only the water.
Which is the best one?
The Triton in Queen Mary's Gardens on a still day, for the setting as much as the bronze. The Venus in Sloane Square is the more interesting object and the harder to look at properly, because it sits in the middle of a busy square with traffic on both sides.
Elsewhere on this site: London oddities, guide to London statues.