The Steble Fountain stands in

William Brown Street William Brown Street in Liverpool, England, is a road that is remarkable for its concentration of public buildings. It is sometimes referred to as the "Cultural Quarter". Originally known as ''Shaw's Brow'', a coaching road east from the city ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, England, to the west of

Wellington's Column Wellington's Column, or the Waterloo Memorial, is a monument to the Duke of Wellington standing on the corner of William Brown Street and Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England ...

. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It was donated to the city by a former mayor to fill a vacant plot to the west of the column.

History

Towards the end of the 19th century, this was the only undeveloped portion of land between St George's Hall and the buildings in William Brown Street. In 1877 Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Fell Steble offered £1000 (equivalent to £ as of ) to the Improvement Committee of

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor J ...

towards the erection of a fountain on the site. Steble had been Mayor of Liverpool from 1845 to 1847. The fountain was designed by

Michel Joseph Napoléon Liénard Michel Joseph Napoléon Liénard (1810–1870) was a French sculptor and ornamentalist. Works Variants of the same fountain design were used by Liénard multiple times, with minor alterations: * Brewer Fountain, Boston (Massachusetts, Unite ...

and was unveiled in 1879. The casting from which the fountain was derived had originally been designed for the

Paris Exposition of 1867 The International Exposition of 1867 (french: Exposition universelle 'art et d'industriede 1867), was the List of world expositions, second world's fair to be held in Paris, from 1 April to 3 November 1867. A number of nations were represente ...

and has been reused with minor variations multiple times across the world, such as in the Brewer Fountain in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

(USA) or the Tournoy fountain in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...

. At the opening ceremony in 1879 the mayor turned the fountain on with a silver key presented by Steble, but the water pressure was low and the effect was "dismal". The water was pumped by a steam pump in the basement of St George's Hall, and the noise from this tended to disrupt the proceedings in the courts above. The steam pump was later replaced by an electric pump. The fountain was restored in 1992 when the

Tall Ships' Race The Tall Ships Races are races for sail training "tall ships" ( sailing ships). The races are designed to encourage international friendship and training for young people in the art of sailing. The races are held annually in European waters and ...

came to Liverpool.

Description

The fountain is constructed in

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

with some bronze fittings. At the base of the fountain is a circular basin with a diameter of . From the centre of the basin rises an octagonal stem on a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

base with the statue of a marine god at each corner. These statues depict

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...

Amphitrite In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & ...

, Acis, and Galatea. Above this is a shallow octagonal bowl with a diameter of . It has 16 overflow outlets; these are decorated with scallops, Lancastrian roses, and marine

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

s. From the centre of this bowl rises another bowl about in diameter. This is surmounted by a

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

holding a

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (), from Latin ''cornu'' (horn) and ''copia'' (abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers ...

. The total height of the fountain is .

References

{{Buildings and structures in Liverpool Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool Fountains in the United Kingdom Iron sculptures in the United Kingdom 1879 establishments in England 1879 sculptures Cast-iron sculptures

History

Description

See also

References