Gothic Drinking Fountain on North West Corner is a Grade II listed building in the Camden local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 July 1998. Drinking fountain.
Gothic Drinking Fountain on North West Corner
- WRENN ID
- iron-facade-briar
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Camden
- Constituency
- Holborn and St Pancras
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 1 July 1998
- Type
- Drinking fountain
- Address
- Gothic Drinking Fountain on North West Corner, Lincolns Inn Fields
- OS grid reference
- TQ 306 814
- Coordinates
- 51.5165, -0.11819
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
This is a Gothic drinking fountain located on the north-west corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields, built in 1861 and restored around 1992. The fountain is made of stone and features a rectangular gabled two-stage slab with a semicircular basin on a half pedestal, which is flanked by block steps leading to a plinth. The second stage, which includes the spout, is adorned with carved Celtic crosses arranged in a rectangular pattern on all sides. The gables are decorated with ball-flower cornices and have a central, cusped gable that is inscribed with the phrase "The Fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life." At the top, there is a restored stone finial that consists of a pierced roundel with three swirling mouchettes.
Historically, the donor of the fountain is unknown, but a letter presented at an 1860 meeting of the District Board of Works indicated that a lady living nearby wished to fund the fountain in Lincoln's Inn Fields due to concerns about the pollution of local wells with sewage. This fountain represents an early effort to provide clean public drinking water during a time when the need for such facilities was becoming increasingly recognized, coinciding with the restoration and renovation of Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Local climate
Gothic Drinking Fountain on North West Corner sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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