Moves are afoot to restore the Ross Fountain in West Princes Street Gardens to full working order.
In a development which will please all those who have missed the soothing tinkle of water within 30 seconds of a public convenience, Rothesay-based Industrial Heritage Consulting Ltd propose to dismantle the Category A-listed structure, undertake necessary repairs, insert new 10m-deep piled foundations, and then reassemble the whole kit and caboodle along with ‘hoop-topped’ railings and associated landscaping (Ref. 16/06377/LBC).
In April last year, the Council’s Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee noted that the hotelier Norman Springford, a potential benefactor, had formed a steering group and offered to support the Council in finding external funding for restoration and improvement of the Gardens. In June, the full Council discussed a report (see foot of page) into the project, and discussed appointing a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) to front the proposed redevelopment.
Earlier, in 2014, the Council had identified two options for restoring the Fountain (see foot of page). One – to last 25 years – would cost an estimated £0.8; the other – to last 100 years – would likely cost £1.5m. It looks to us as though IHC’s proposal is for the more expensive scheme.
Trouble with the waterworks
Refurbished in 2001, switched off again in 2010, the Fountain is – like many older locals – beset by three problems:
- subsidence, resulting in tilt
- significant water leakage
- failing of internal fastenings and fracturing of iron components.
It had been hoped that the complicated project, which is backed by the Apex Hotel Group, would begin this month and be complete by October 2017. However, that schedule seems to have slipped, with a Planning consent decision not required until late February.
In the event of a CEC Planning green light, those behind the scheme see considerable scope for public involvement:
A programme of learning, engagement and interpretation has been requested to accompany the technical programme of works to conserve the fountain and associated mechanisms, which represents exciting opportunities for learning through STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), about the water pumping technologies as well as the sculpting, iron casting and assembling processes. There are also rich opportunities for cultural learning; the Victorian philanthropic tradition, sculptural arts, public parks, statuary and the designed landscape.
Apex – which has 6 outlets in Edinburgh, including serviced apartments on Princes Street – would probably not discourage parallels being drawn between Victorian philanthropy and its own.
Grossly indecent and disgusting
The fountain, described by Gifford et al.* as ‘a collossal Second Empire set piece with voluptous figures’ was originally commissioned for the Great Exhibition in London (1862). Its personifications of Science, Industry, Arts and Poetry (among others) were sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Jules Klagmann and cast by Antoine Durenne of somewhere most easily described as not a million miles away from Paris.
The Edinburgh gunsmith Daniel Ross purchased the structure for Edinburgh at a cost of £2,000, and had it shipped to Leith in 122 pieces in 1869. It was operational by 1872, when an appalled Dean Ramsay of St John’s Church promptly dismissed it as ‘Grossly indecent and digusting; insulting and offensive to the moral feelings of the community and disgraceful to the City’.
*John Gifford, Colin McWilliam and David Walker (1984), The Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, ed. Colin McWilliam (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books), p. 317.
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