This week, we celebrated the restoration of Guilford Place drinking fountain in Bloomsbury.
This is the thirteenth historic drinking fountain to be fully restored by HOLT across London and the second since the summer.
We were joined by over 30 local supporters as well young people who had been involved as part of HOLT’s Proud Places youth engagement programme.
The fountain was erected in 1870 in memory of Mrs Francis Whiting by her two daughters, who lived in nearby Mecklenburgh Square. It has a sculptured marble figure of the ‘Woman of Samaria’ pouring water from a jug, from the Biblical story of Jesus’s meeting with a Samaritan woman at a well. The fountain itself survived the Blitz while all the housing around was hit by bombing. In recent years, the marble figure had been damaged with missing stonework, broken steps and it black with pollution, remaining that way since the late 1990s.
The fountain had not been working for some years. Our recent survey found that 78% of passers-by said they would use it to fill up their water bottle if it was working again and we restored it this summer with the support of the WC Bar below it (a new wine & charcuterie bar converted from historic public conveniences), along with funding from long time HOLT supporter Roger Cline and the Jones Day Foundation.
Work included repairing the stonework, replacement marble pieces, plus the reinstatement of the plumbing.
Over 60 young people including A-level Art & Design students from Westminster Kingsway College were involved with the project as part of our Proud Places programme. This involved meeting conservators working on the site, stonemasonry workshops, poetry workshops, ceramics workshops and taking part in our Proud Prospects careers’ development. Also joining us was HOLT’s Chair Sir Laurie Magnus, our Patrons, a team from the Jones Day law firm and Tim Hyatt, Head of Residential at Knight Frank who had hosted some of the students, along with Coram's Fields Youth Club and Argyle Primary School.
"I'm so proud of Faadouma and so pleased that she could be involved in such a lovely event" said Faadouma Ali’s father. Faadouma, age 10, who is a pupil at Argyle Primary School, read out a poem at the event.
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