Through a hole in the hoardings, the Parliament Street fountain, 14 May 2018

After much debate and discussion, much controversy and delay, the Parliament Street fountain is now being demolished. Recently, when the hoardings went up around it, I wandered up that way, and also visited another fountain in the city centre, which may be restored. More on that below.

I’ve written about the Parliament Street fountain a few times in the past, as the issue of its possible demolition raised some interesting questions. Now that demolition is taking place the main question is what might go there instead.

Nothing, I hope, at least not in that exact same place.

On my recent wander I approached it from Market Street — the street that goes up from the corner of Coney Street and Spurriergate, with Feasegate branching off it about half way along, and continuing on to Parliament Street.

Street sign: Market Street

Approaching from Market Street seemed to re-emphasise, as I thought it might, my previous perception of the fountain as ‘a thing in the way’, at this meeting of roads.

More of a thing in the way than usual, at the moment, with the hoardings around it and the wider area around it.

Hoardings around the Parliament Street fountain, 14 May 2018

Just beyond that is the entrance to the expensively refurbished market, now known as Shambles Market. A large metal sign spans the Jubbergate end of it, and another banner sign below urges us to love our local market.

Directly below that, on the evening I passed by (in mid-May), the prominent but rather grimy panels on the hoardings wished ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our customers at Shambles Market’.

Hoardings around the Parliament Street fountain, 14 May 2018

Thankfully they have since been removed, as they looked a bit daft.

A brief wander around the perimeter of the fenced-off fountain revealed small round holes in the hoardings, forming a pleasing frame for these last views of it, a day or two before its removal.

The soon to be demolished Parliament Street fountain, 14 May 2018

There are, I know, many people who felt very fond of the fountain — even though it hadn’t done anything fountain-like for years — and many people saw it as an important meeting place.

Personally it doesn’t have that significance for me. Mainly, as I’ve said before, it felt like a thing in the way, when I approached as I often do from the market area down Jubbergate to get to the bank on the other side, or headed across to Market Street to get to Coney Street.

Here’s a view from that perspective.

View from the Jubbergate entrance to Shambles Market, across Parliament Street, towards Market St, 14 May 2018

Obviously the hoardings take up a bigger area than the fountain did, but I hope it illustrates the point.

To me, it’s a junction, a place where roads meet, and anything in the middle of it is an obstacle. The old fountain perhaps a bit like a roundabout for traffic, with pedestrians in a hurry having to slow down and join the traffic moving around it.

I lived in York for decades before I realised that Jubbergate had a name. When I realised it did, that seemed ridiculous for such a stumpy short bit of street. All makes sense though when you realise what the creation of Parliament Street entailed, how it cut through and cleared. Here’s the 1852 map:

1852 map showing Jubbergate and Parliament Street

Note how long Jubbergate used to be. Part of it disappeared with the rather brutal cutting through of Parliament Street in the early 19th century, but you can still see its line clearly, marked Jubbergate and High Jubbergate on this map. At some point later the longer section was renamed Market Street. A name that made sense as it led to the main city marketplace, on Parliament Street.

But of course in more recent decades the city’s main permanent market hasn’t been on Parliament Street, but shifted to one side in an area between Jubbergate/Newgate/Shambles. Its most obvious entrance — the Jubbergate one — is still opposite the end of Market Street. Just that for the last couple of decades there’s been the structure of the fountain there in the middle, between the two.

With the obstacle of the fountain out of the way, it strikes me that it would be better to use the natural flow of the streetscape we already have, a street called Market Street, on the line of the old Jubbergate, leading to part of the current market place on what’s left of Jubbergate. There’s always a flower stall at the market’s Jubbergate entrance, a far more attractive sight, I reckon, than the shiny marble and strange little railing of the disused fountain structure.

The old fountain, in recent years, served mainly as a seat. Benches could replace it on either side of the space it once occupied, taking the line of the old Jubbergate, emphasising it, leaving space for Jubbergate to take the line it used to.

The old fountain was of the type intended to provide water for looking at, purely decorative. If anything is going to replace it as a permanent structure then a drinking fountain would perhaps be a good choice instead (but placed to one side of the old Jubbergate line).

There has been talk of statues, etc. If the demolished structure has to be replaced by anything then a drinking fountain would be far more useful, far more 21st century … and it would also mean that the people who used to say ‘Meet me at the fountain’ could still do so. Seems obvious to me.

Which leads me on to …

A drinking fountain long since dry: possible restoration?

Museum Street’s non-operational drinking fountain

The old drinking fountain on Museum Street, on the perimeter of the Museum Gardens, is something I’ve often admired, and been interested in, and wondered why it has been left for so long as a non-operational structure. I wrote about it some years back, and just assumed that drinking fountains are a thing of the past. Then not long back I read that the Civic Trust had restored a drinking fountain on Acomb Green, which sounded very interesting, until I realised that it had only involved repainting, rather than getting the thing to work again and be useful (I’d rather it had been left alone, rust and patina and natural weathering and all, but that’s just me perhaps).

But this drinking fountain on Museum Street, it looks like it could perhaps again provide water, as it’s on a list of projects the Civic Trust is considering.

Lion’s head on Museum Street’s non-operational drinking fountain

The Civic Trust’s website says:

York Civic Trust would like to restore the drinking fountain in Museum Street to good working order. It is a Grade II listed structure dating from 1880 originally sited in Library Square, it’s been derelict for at least 30 years and we wish to restore it to working order, in particular to meet current Government initiatives. One of the lion head’s need replacing. Estimated cost £6,000.

There’s an opportunity to vote for this, if you’d like to support it. More details on this link.

But don’t go yet … a few more photos and thoughts follow.

It’s good to see that the Civic Trust has opened up its ‘city enhancement’ project to public comment. It might be nice to have a functioning drinking fountain on Museum Street. I think I vaguely remember it working, in the 1980s, but I’m not sure.

Museum Street’s non-operational drinking fountain: detail

Museum Street’s non-operational drinking fountain: detail

Museum Street’s non-operational drinking fountain

I remember looking into the subject of drinking fountains in cities when I wrote about this one before, and not finding much. Now, in 2018, I found recent articles on the provision of drinking fountains in London and other cities, a 21st century take on things.

Such a practical and useful thing, and if other cities can manage to have functioning public drinking fountains then presumably York can too. A restored one on Museum Street, and perhaps a new one on Parliament Street … ?

More information

Drinking water fountains should become as iconic as the red British telephone box – Telegraph, 24 March 2018

‘They’re just not very British': will cities finally splash out on water fountains? – Guardian, 5 Dec 2017

First of London’s new drinking fountain locations revealed – Guardian, 25 March 2018

Footnote

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not able to add to this ‘resident’s record of York and its changes’ as often as I used to, because it takes a long time to write original content and take the photos to go with it, and these days it has to fit around other more important things. This page, for example, has been in draft for well over a week. A half-written page on something else is still sitting in draft form from some time before that. But if you like what I have finished and published, and all the things you can read here, old and new, going back many years, you can support it, and me, with a virtual coffee (or indeed several) and that’s always very much appreciated.

The post Parliament Street fountain demolition, and a possible fountain restoration appeared first on York Stories.

The disused fountain on Parliament Street, having for many years served as a useful seat and meeting point, is now serving another purpose, as a support for advertisements for a forthcoming event.

On a previous page, prompted by Press reports, we were wondering what the story was regarding the fountain in Parliament Street and who ‘Make it York’ are, and how it is that they appear to be deciding on the destruction of the structure on behalf of the city’s residents.

The Press has since done a follow-up piece. It didn’t provoke as much interest as the original and rather alarmingly headlined one did, but it was more important as it provided clear information on the role of Make it York:

Steve Brown, managing director of Make It York said:”We wish to clarify that any decisions which impact on the fabric or infrastructure of the city centre are the responsibility of City of York Council.

However, as the company leading on marketing York, we will contribute our opinion on matters which we feel impact on the city’s attractiveness as a place to live, visit, study and do business.

Our opinion on this matter is that a redundant fountain doesn’t add to the city’s attractiveness and we were recently approached by the council to discuss this, in view of the fact that there is currently no plan to restore the fountain to working order. How this matter is progressed further is a matter for the council to lead on and to agree a way forward.”

(Full article here)

The Press also did an opinion piece on 13 July on the subject, perhaps hoping to provoke more comment. The piece seemed to suggest that we should leave Make it York to make decisions about the city centre.

The broader issue here is about the role of Make It York. Will every substantial decision on the city centre in future be taken by the city council? And if so, what was the point of setting up Make It York in the first place?

Yes, that is indeed part of the broader issue, as highlighted on these pages a few days earlier. Surely every substantial decision on the city centre should be taken by the city council? Because they’re elected and answerable to us, and we can usually read the agendas and minutes of their meetings? Hard to imagine how it could be otherwise, in the light of increasing citizen involvement, the ‘Localism’ agenda and changes in approaches to governance and transparency. It’s not the 1950s.

The Press coverage provoked some interesting and amusing comments and readers’ letters. In response to the oft-quoted fact that the fountain is an established meeting point in the city centre, one person suggested we could get rid of it and put a large sign saying ‘Meeting Point’ in its place. Another reader wanted a statue of Richard III.

On the subject of statues and fountains, let’s dash across the city to another fountain, overlooked by a familiar figure.

Yes, it’s dear old grubby Etty! But he’s not grubby anymore. He’s all sparkling white.

This apparently happened a week ago and was captured on camera by Keith Myers, @York_Today on Twitter.

@YorkStories I saw him being blasted with water on Tuesday. Here’s the pic. pic.twitter.com/nGtyi1YsFQ

— York Today (@York_Today) July 10, 2015

Poor Etty, being blasted with water. I thought he looked a bit wide-eyed and startled.

Etty overlooks the fountain in Exhibition Square, which unlike the Parliament Street example is actually a working fountain with water jets playing gaily across a pool of water. But it was eating Etty, and there was talk about removing one or the other of them, as discussed on this site some time back.

At the time, Reinvigorate York did a consultation on changes here in Exhibition Square, and some of those took place, so it now has new paving and bus stops. I wondered if there was going to be a stage 2, involving the removal of Etty or the fountain, but it seems that we’ve settled for cleaning him up.

Perhaps the fountain will be filled in instead. I hope that any decisions on this will be publicised and made by elected officials in a transparent and open way.

I’m not a big fan of statues, but over the years I’ve developed a fondness for Etty on his plinth. And he needs to stay here, in this particular place, his eyes forever fixed on Bootham Bar, that’s an important part of the story of this statue.

Writing to the local paper in February 1832 Etty urged that “a little stir will save the Bar, and in saving it, save many more precious remains in York.” (source)

Local authorities sometimes have terrible ideas about civic improvement, and the passionate campaigning of ‘engaged’ citizens, in response, has helped to preserve the heritage and character of our cities. As Etty wrote back then:

With all your improvements, patching, and cobbling, you can never make York a uniform, “well-built” City. But keep her Antiquities, and she will always possess a charm, an interest, far beyond that of most other towns, however regular their streets or “handsome” their houses.

And a message from me …

This website is completely independent, receives no external funding, costs money to host and a lot of time to write. If you’d like to support this work and help pay the hosting costs you can do so via this link.
Thank you
Lisa @YorkStories

The post Two fountains, and a message from Etty appeared first on York Stories.

Exhibition Square fountain

In that year York Civic Trust provided a new fountain for Exhibition Square. It’s still there, but as previously mentioned, it’s apparently eroding the Etty statue. And as the Etty statue is a listed monument, and the fountain isn’t, it seems more likely that the fountain will have to go. They can’t live together anymore.

So let’s focus our attention on the fountain, and let’s leap back to 1971. The Civic Trust’s annual report included a piece on this new fountain for York: ‘a gift which all its citizens could enjoy.’

It’s always good to read contemporary accounts, to get the proper picture of what people thought at the time, because we forget what we thought, as we get used to things being there and take them for granted.

‘Exhibition Square Fountain’, York Civic Trust Annual Report 1970-71, p4-5

‘Exhibition Square Fountain’, York Civic Trust Annual Report 1970-71, p6

The joy and sense of achievement and a job well done was recorded back then when this fountain was new. These images can be enlarged if you’d like to read the report. Please do – it’s very cheering and inspiring. And it reminds us of just one of the many gifts the York Civic Trust has given to the city and its residents.

The report tells us that the fountain was designed by Bernard Feilden, OBE, and that the slate plaques were carved by York carver Richard Reid (probably better known as Dick Reid, and we now add OBE to his name too).

Exhibition Square on a sunny morning in 2006

It was, says the report, ‘an excellent example of co-operation in which the Corporation played its full part.’ The council (the ‘Corporation’) repaved around the fountain – presumably the slabs that are still there today. The Etty statue was cleaned, and floodlit.

‘Altogether a splendid exercise in improving the environment. So, should anyone ask you what is the meaning of that word take them to Exhibition Square on a sunny day, look out across the fountain towards Bootham Bar with the tumbling red roofs behind it and the Minster towers beyond — surely one of the loveliest sights in Europe — and then remember what it used to be like.’

I don’t remember what it used to be like, but photos show that by that time the Etty statue was surrounded by parked cars on tarmac. The view across to Bootham Bar, the red roofs and Minster, remains. It’s still lovely, ‘proper York’, and it’s the main image at the top of these pages (full effect visible if you’re viewing on a larger screen).

Pigeon appreciates fountain

I’d forgotten how many photos I’d taken of the fountain. I did find it aesthetically pleasing, in the morning light in summer, when lit in the evening. I’m not sure whether it’s still lit in the evening – I stopped paying attention and took it for granted. Not alone in that I’m sure.

To me it has no strong personal significance, but it was a gift to the city, and it clearly meant a lot to York Civic Trust when it was placed here in the square back in 1971, and that should be recorded, with appreciation.

A new fountain/water feature will probably replace it, but it won’t mean as much as the installation of the 1971 fountain. The wish to ‘Reinvigorate York’ hasn’t produced anything as vigorous as that passionate and inspiring description from 1971 : ‘It is a pleasing thing to see young children running round the square thrilling to the dancing water.’ Now we get phrases like ‘transforming the economic, cultural and recreational offer’.

If you were one of the children of the 1970s running through the water, or have other thoughts you’d like to share, please add a comment. Please, on these important records of what we knew of York in the 20th century, share it on the proper open-to-all internet, the online version of the public square, rather than on Facebook or Twitter. That way there’s more chance people in the future will be able to find it, this history of ours. Facebook and Twitter don’t care about your real history, what you remember about this place we know. I do.

More information/updates

January 2021: It’s now some years since the above was written. The Etty statue is still there, and so is the fountain.

They looked particularly handsome, and seemed to be enjoyed, during the Bloom York festival a few years back.

The post 1971: welcoming the fountain, Exhibition Square appeared first on York Stories.

I have to confess that I’d not really noticed the fountain wasn’t working. All it is to me is a slightly annoying thing in the way on the occasions I dash from Newgate to the bank. It’s just another of those not particularly enduring structures we spent money on in the late 20th century. I wouldn’t have mentioned this fountain at all, ever, if it hadn’t been for a very funny piece by Chris Titley, which suggests various creative uses for the structure now it is no longer spouting water.

It inspired an idea to add to the mix, regarding what we can do with the redundant non-operational fountain structure …

Fountain/mountain of fruit and veg

… A stall for selling fruit and veg. A fruit and veg mountain on the fountain.

This design makes good use of the slight incline on the existing structure, and in the vision of a ‘fruit and veg mountain’ it fully utilises the existing railing structure, which stops the mounded peaches rolling off. (Not part of the original vision for the fountain: photo. Not sure why or when it was added, but it looks silly, doesn’t it.)

Parliament Street was the home of the market stalls for decades, and the majority think the market should never have left here to move around the corner into Newgate. This central York street is often occupied now by visiting markets and used for special events, but the traditional York market is allowed to use the space on Mondays. After which it has to go back round the corner.

As previously mentioned, it seems likely that a(nother) Sainsbury’s Local is to occupy the ground floor of the old White Swan hotel building, not far away, on Piccadilly, at the end of Parliament Street. This hasn’t been universally welcomed, for obvious reasons, particularly by market traders. If they were given a more prominent position where the shoppers rushing to Sainsbury’s had a chance to see them then that might help. This fruit and veg mountain fountain could serve as a reminder that fruit and veg doesn’t have to come sitting on a plastic tray or in a plastic bag, brought in from miles and miles away. Perhaps to make it more appealing to non-locals (and we all realise that the ‘visitor offer’ is of utmost importance) someone in a historical costume could juggle peaches, discuss the history of this street, or perhaps ponder why its paving is so strangely wonky. I’m planning to do two of those things. More later.

Credits

Fountain photo: David Smith. Inspiration: yorkmix.com on the Parliament St fountain, fruit and veg photos: @sheilas321veg.

Elsewhere on the web

Stallholders hail return of city centre market trading (on Mondays) (from The Press)
Market trader Valerie Mitchell quits stall after 45 years (The Press)

The post Parliament Street fountain: another idea appeared first on York Stories.

Here on the boundary of that familiar landscape known as the Museum Gardens is one of many local structures both familiar, in that we see it all the time, and unknown, in that we don’t use it. It’s a drinking fountain, proudly dated 1880, which has two faces, into the Gardens and onto Museum Street.

Not much information is available. It was built by the York sculptor and monumental mason Job Cole, and donated to the city by Henry Cowling, a local solicitor. It’s a rather grand and fancy structure, the product of a very different age, when drinking from a communal spout or cup seemed acceptable.

While writing this page I’ve had a vague memory resurface of once drinking from a street fountain, sometime in childhood or adolescence. Might have been this one. I didn’t investigate whether it’s still possible to drink from it, but doubt it is.

The provision of clean drinking water was valued so much more in the 19th century, and the provision of the first public drinking fountain in London such a notable event that crowds turned out for its official unveiling.

A charitable organisation, The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, was established in 1859. The cattle trough element wasn’t originally part of its role, and perhaps came with greater awareness of animal welfare. The association provided this trough, in Acomb, near the village green.

Again, it’s difficult to find further information. I don’t know when this trough dates from. As discussed during an earlier wander through Acomb, it was familiar to me from my childhood, but I’m not old enough to remember it in use. I have never seen a cow in Acomb.

There are other cattle troughs bearing inscriptions, on the outskirts of the city and in its suburbs: on Clifton Green, on Lawrence Street, and on Bishopgate Street. There are possibly other surviving drinking fountains, or ones remembered. Your comments welcome.

Links & sources

Drinking Fountain Asssociation

Find a fountain

London’s First Drinking Fountain

Heraldry and the Buildings of York – Hugh Murray (York, 1985)

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