Work has begun on the restoration of a Grade II listed fountain at the site of one of London’s earliest fresh water sources, the ‘conduit’ in Lamb’s Conduit Street. The Guilford Place fountain in Bloomsbury was erected in 1870 in memory of Mrs Francis Whiting by her 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 had not been working for some years and was in poor repair. It is the 12th historic fountain to be fully restored by HOLT and the project is being generously supported by the Jones Day Foundation, local resident Roger Cline and WC Bars Bloomsbury. As part of our Proud Places programme, students from Westminster Kingsway College have been visiting the site to meet the stonemasons at work and taken part in creative workshops.
Comments