Drinking Fountain At Junction Of Allsop Place And Baker Street

The drinking fountain at the junction of Allsop Place and Baker Street is a late 19th-century structure that was cleaned and restored around 1989. It is inscribed with the words "Presented by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association." Made of polished pink granite, the fountain has a design that resembles a baptismal font, featuring a circular pedestal with an arched niche at the base that accommodates a rectangular dog basin. It also has a circular basin with a moulded band and a central urn with spouts. This fountain is noted as the most complete surviving example in Central London of the standard late 19th-century design by the Association. Founded in 1859, the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association, which added cattle troughs in 1867, aimed to provide free fresh water to both people and animals at a time when it was often easier to obtain ale and spirits than clean water. The association was supported by evangelical Victorians who associated water with purity of spirit and offered a catalogue of functional designs, although some wealthy patrons commissioned their own unique fountains.