Water, Water Everywhere…
Yesterday the Royal Parks Foundation’s quest to create the ultimate drinking fountain for the Royal Parks was finally complete as Watering Holes, a unique sculptural stone fountain, was launched in Green Park, following the unveiling of Moxon Architects’ Trumpet in Kensington Gardens earlier this year. The two fountains are the winners of an international RIBA design competition supported by The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, New York.
Robin Monotti Architects and Mark Titman’s Watering Holes is an 800kg slab of Cornish granite (the same as was used in the Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park and Tower Bridge) perforated with three watering holes at heights from which adults, children, wheelchair users and dogs can drink cool, fresh water, in one of London’s most visited Royal Parks.
The installation in Green Park, near the new Bomber Command Memorial, marks the end of a two-year collaboration between the Royal Parks Foundation, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, RIBA Competitions and The Royal Parks, to create a new drinking fountain that is both beautiful and robust and which enhances The Royal Parks’ Grade-I listed landscapes. The initial design competition, which attracted 169 entries from 26 countries, was an important element of Tiffany – Across the Water, a wider programme to restore drinking and ornamental fountains across the 5,000 acres of London’s Royal Parks with the support of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation in New York.
Michael Freeman, Trustee of the Royal Parks Foundation and Chair of the Judging Panel alongside RIBA and Andrew Graham Dixon, said: “These new drinking fountains, Watering Holes in Green Park and Trumpet in Kensington Gardens, are fabulous additions to the Royal Parks. They work really well and they’re terrific looking sculptures too. We’re hoping to install them in other Royal Parks and potentially elsewhere outside the Royal Parks. Robin Monotti and Ben Addy are very talented British designers with great careers ahead of them.”
There are around 35 public drinking fountains across the eight Royal Parks. Thanks to The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, 12 that needed the most urgent work will have been restored or replaced by the end of 2012, including Victorian troughs and the impressive granite fountain topped with a newly carved pineapple at Hanover Gate in Regent’s Park. The other winning design, Moxon Architects’ Trumpet, was installed by Kensington Palace in January this year. The Foundation will hold a small endowment for future maintenance of the new fountains.
Fernanda Kellogg, Chair of the Tiffany and Co. Foundation and design competition judge, said: “The Tiffany & Co. Foundation has a particular interest in supporting design as part of our mission to preserve the natural heritage in urban centres so we are pleased to celebrate the installation of Watering Holes and Trumpet. These two drinking fountains will enhance London’s Royal Parks visually - with their modern classic aesthetic - and environmentally, by helping to reduce the use of plastic water bottles in the Parks. We are overjoyed to be supporting this endeavor.”