Jubilee Fountain, Albert Square, Manchester

Fountain. 1897 to designs by Thomas Worthington, with sculpture by John Cassidy. Restored in 1997. Grey and red granite, sandstone, bronze. Gothic style.

PLAN: hexagonal plan with three basins reducing in size as they ascend.

DESCRIPTION: the fountain stands on three shallow, hexagonal steps of grey granite. The large hexagonal bowl at the base is of red granite with moulded sides and square piers with moulded caps at each of the six angles. The smaller second hexagonal basin is of sandstone and stands on six colonettes comprising triple engaged shafts of red granite with carved capitals supporting the overhanging corbelling of the bottom of the basin. This basin has deep sides with a moulded band at the bottom running round the six faces and carrying an inscription in raised letters which says ‘ERECTED IN THE SIXTIETH / YEAR OF THE REIGN OF HER / MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY / QUEEN VICTORIA ANNO / DOMINI EIGHTEEN HUNDRED / AND NINETY SEVEN’. Above the inscription the six faces have blind tracery panels, with two of the faces having a raised central panel. That on the town hall side contains the coat of arms and motto of the city of Manchester, and the opposing panel has the coat of arms of the Duchy of Lancaster. Above the tracery panels there is a bronze gargoyle waterspout at the apex of each of the six angles. The upper basin is a small, delicate, shell-like bowl set on a slender pedestal encircled by four single, red granite colonettes with carved capitals. Rising from the centre of the bowl is a central finial comprising four engaged, red granite shafts with a sandstone cap surmounted by a bronze dolphin.