Fountain: First drinking fountain
Erection date: 21/4/1859
{Carved in the red marble arch:}
The Gift of Saml. Gurney M.P. 1859
{Carved in the red marble base:}
Replace the cup.
{Carved on the curved stone behind and below the spout:}
The first Metropolitan public drinking fountain erected on Holborn Hill in 1859 and removed when the viaduct was constructed in 1867.
DrinkingFountains gives two pictures from the 'Illustrated London News' of this fountain when it was originally installed. From a close examination of these pictures and Streetview, we deduce that the fountain was originally installed in the railings around the church at the Snow Hill/Holborn Viaduct junction. The widening of Snow Hill at this junction meant that the fountain and the railings were removed to be replaced by more ornately Victorian railings closer in to the church. And the fountain was remodelled and reinstalled at its current site.
Site: St Sepulchre's Church (2 memorials)
EC1, Holborn Viaduct, St Sepulchre's Church
The plaque to the Royal Fusiliers is in the garden on the south-west facing wall of the church. The fountain is on the street corner.
A modern information board in the garden informs: The garden of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate has retained its ties with the Eighth Battalion Royal Fusiliers (the City of London Regiment) TA since 1953 when the garden's railings were painted in the regimental colours. The church itself was made famous in the old nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' in which St Sepulchre's bells were 'the Bells of Old Bailey'.
