Carnwell Fountain

The Carnwell Fountain is a drinking fountain and trough built in 1860 by Major Charles Davis. It is constructed from a mixture of building stones including grey and pink sandstone, white marble, and polished pink and grey granite. The fountain features an arched recess on its right side, above a low trough, and a rectangular continuation to the left with a drinking fountain and basin. The Romanesque arch on the right has two receding orders, decorated with weathered Lombardic detail, resting on colonettes with floral capitals of marble. A continuous band of red sandstone sits below the arch. Above the former fountain is a badly weathered inscription panel, which originally read: “Jesus said: whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst again” (John IV, 13-14).

Historically, the fountain was built near the site of an earlier conduit described in John Wood’s A description of Bath. It is set into the rear retaining wall of the gardens of Bladud's Buildings and was originally located close to the Bath Cattle Market. It's considered an early example of a public drinking fountain, influenced by the design unveiled at St Sepulchre's, Snow Hill, City of London, in 1859. Davis, the City architect, also drew inspiration from John Ruskin's depictions of Venetian medieval architecture.

The wide variety of stones used in its construction demonstrates a High Victorian preference for architectural polychromy and an interest in geology. At the time of inspection in 2002, the fountain was in poor condition, disused, and the trough was filled with earth. Attribution to Davis is based on his obituary in The Builder, 17 May 1902, and it was illustrated in R.E.M. Peach's Rambles about Bath (1876).