Albion Square Fountain

We were thrilled to unveil the restored fountain in the centre of Albion Square, Hackney. This is one of just three remaining drinking fountains erected by celebrated philanthropist John Passmore Edwards (1823 – 1911) and marks our fifth restored drinking fountain in London this year. Each one of which has been fully restored with fresh drinking water and a big community celebration. This project was completed with HOLT and the support of Hackney Council.

Over 130 local residents and school children joined us at the launch, there was live music from Hackney Ukulele Band and food and drink. Local children from Queensbridge Primary - Ogonna Johnson, Mona Wedde and Joy Delpratt-Gbadamosi – gave presentations.

Passmore Edwards was a political and social reformer and became one of the most successful newspaper proprietors of his time. He put his energies into philanthropy, funding more than 70 public buildings. One of his aims was to “place drinking-water within reach of many of the poorest” but this is the only one of his three surviving fountains to have water again.

As part of our Proud Places programme, over 100 local school children visited the project and learnt about stonemasonry and gilding. Some made their own ceramic drinking fountains which won a place at this year’s RA Young Artists’ Summer Show. The project was supported by The Jones Day Foundation.

See a video below of the celebrations!

Poet for Places 2023

We had a brilliant evening launching our Poet for Places 2023 programme at Brunel University London – the winner appointed for the next year will be poet, aspiring author and LGBT+ activist Kira Nelson.

Poet for Places is a year long programme for a young 18-25 year old Londoner to write poetry about Heritage of London Trust sites and work with young people as part of our Proud Places programme. We ran an open competition for all Londoners, with the winner receiving a £10,000 grant as well as a year’s mentoring by the country’s ‘Coronation poet’ Daljit Nagra, Dr Emma Filtness and other poets & writers.

We had wonderfully diverse entries and shortlisted ten poets, choosing a winner and three runners up.

The three runners up were: Smriti Sarma, Tolulope Aboderin and Olive Franklin.

Shortlisted poets were: Bhanavi Kumar, Blessing Odunyemi, Emily Shewell, Natasha Stewart and Thymian Gadd.

Kira’s year as Poet for Places will begin on September 1 2023 and run through to September 1 2024.

Kira said:

"Poetry is my go-to medium of self-expression and an invaluable outlet. It gives you the power to touch topics that you are passionate about in a personal, meaningful way; to look not only outward at how you perceive the world around you but also within yourself. To have the opportunity to use my voice and my pen as a tool for learning, deeper understanding and self-exploration is a privilege to me and something not many have the chance to experience…. This will be huge for me. London is my birthplace but there is so much I have yet to discover. I am in love with modern history and the city is perhaps more steeped in it than any other in the Western World. We are an almost unparalleled centre of culture, innovation and beautiful uniqueness. I am proud to be a Londoner and I can't wait to get started!"

Keep an eye out for more from Kira this autumn.

Thanks to the Caledonia Investments Charitable Foundation for their fantastic support for the project.

Proud Places at Seven Dials

We were thrilled to take our Proud Places groups to one of HOLT's current projects; the Seven Dials monument in Covent Garden. The Covent Garden Hotel kindly hosted the children after their visit to the site, allowing them to make and gild their own sundials - learning from Seven Dials' gilder Kevin Ruggeri.

Read more on Kit Kemp's Design Threads Blog.