Steble Fountain
{{Short description|Listed fountain in Liverpool, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox building
|name = Steble Fountain
|image = Steble Fountain.JPG
|image_size =
|caption = Steble Fountain with Wellington's Column in the background
|location = William Brown Street, Liverpool, England
|coordinates = {{coord|53.40956|-2.97923|region:GB_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}
|years_built = 1879
|client = Liverpool City Council
|renovation_date = 1992 (restored)
|architect = Michel Joseph Napoléon Liénard
| designations = {{Designation list
| embed = yes
| designation1 = Grade II* Listed Building
| designation1_offname = Steble Fountain
| designation1_date = 28 June 1952
| designation1_number = {{NHLE|num=1359621|short=y|postscript=none}}
}}
}}
The Steble Fountain stands on William Brown Street in Liverpool, England, to the west of Wellington's Column. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.{{NHLE |num=1359621 |desc=Steble Fountain |access-date=11 April 2015 |mode=cs2}} It was donated to the city by a former mayor to fill a vacant plot to the west of the column. For much of the 2010s and 2020s, the fountain has needed repair and has not functioned.{{Cite news |date=2021-11-24 |title=Liverpool's Victorian fountain flows again after temporary fix |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-59399233 |access-date=2023-12-07}}
History
Towards the end of the 19th century, this was the only undeveloped portion of land between St George's Hall and the buildings on William Brown Street. In 1877 Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Fell Steble offered £1,000 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|1000|1877|{{Inflation-year|UK}}|r=-4}}}} as of {{Inflation-year|UK}}){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y|mode=cs2}} to the Improvement Committee of Liverpool City Council towards the erection of a fountain on the site.{{Citation |last=Cavanagh |first=Terry |year=1996 |title=Public Sculpture of Liverpool |series=Public Sculpture of Britain |publication-place=Liverpool |publisher=Liverpool University Press |pages=23–25 |isbn=0-85323-701-8}} Steble had been Mayor of Liverpool from 1845 to 1847.{{Citation |last=Pye |first=Ken |year=2011 |title=Discover Liverpool |publication-place=Liverpool |publisher=Trinity Mirror Media |page=23 |isbn=978-1-906802-90-5}} The fountain was designed by Michel Joseph Napoléon Liénard and was unveiled in 1879.{{Citation |last=Pollard |first=Richard |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author2-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=The Buildings of England |title=Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2006 |location=New Haven and London |page=300 |isbn=0-300-10910-5}} The casting from which the fountain was derived had originally been designed for the Paris Exposition of 1867 and has been reused with minor variations multiple times across the world, such as in the Brewer Fountain in Boston (USA) or the Tournoy fountain in Quebec City. At the opening ceremony in 1879 the mayor turned the fountain on with a silver key presented by Steble, but the water pressure was low and the effect was "dismal". The water was pumped by a steam pump in the basement of St George's Hall, and the noise from this tended to disrupt the proceedings in the courts above. The steam pump was later replaced by an electric pump. The fountain was restored in 1992 when the Tall Ships' Race came to Liverpool.
Description
The fountain is constructed in cast iron with some bronze fittings. At the base of the fountain is a circular basin with a diameter of {{convert|30|ft|m|1}}. From the centre of the basin rises an octagonal stem on a cruciform base with the statue of a marine god at each corner. These statues depict Neptune, Amphitrite, Acis, and Galatea. Above this is a shallow octagonal bowl with a diameter of {{convert|12|ft|6|in|m|1}}. It has 16 overflow outlets; these are decorated with scallops, Lancastrian roses, and marine grotesques. From the centre of this bowl rises another bowl about {{convert|8|ft|m|1}} in diameter. This is surmounted by a mermaid holding a cornucopia. The total height of the fountain is {{convert|23|ft|m|0}}.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Buildings and structures in Liverpool}}
Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
Category:Fountains in the United Kingdom
Category:Iron sculptures in the United Kingdom