Victorian Drinking Fountains Talk by Kathryn Ferry

Kathryn Ferry will share the findings of her study of the public drinking fountain, found in almost every town during the Victorian era.

By the end of the Victorian era almost all British towns and cities had at least one public drinking fountain. Thousands of these survive as part of our modern townscape yet, since few of them still work, they are easy to walk past and ignore. Kathryn Ferry has made a particular study of these fountains and will share her findings with us in this talk.

Victorian drinking fountains were not just functional sources of clean water: they were symbols of public health, urban growth and in London, the resilience of the City itself. Liverpool was the first city to have them thanks to the prominent Unitarian Charles Melly: other cities like Leeds and Hull followed with London finally catching up in 1859 when the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was founded and became instrumental in their rapid expansion. Many can still be found in the capital where they remain a useful and symbolic reminder of how access to clean drinking water They were paid for by philanthropists, local governments and even royalty. The combination of charitable endeavour, temperance benefits and a Christian tradition that linked water to purity and innocence made them popular among Victorian benefactors, many of whom were women. They were typically built of granite or other stone and carved by professional stonemasons, reflecting the architectural grandeur of the era. They remain both useful and symbolic reminders of how access to clean drinking water transformed the life of London and other cities of the Industrial Revolution.

Kathryn Ferry is a historian specialising in Architecture, Design and Seaside Culture. She is Chair of the Victorian Society’s Publications Committee.
Her list of publications ranges from the history of beach huts, through Victorian homes and 1950s kitchens, to the official history of Butlin’s and the story of Britain’s largest Anglican convent at East Grinstead. She is passionate about sharing her research through magazine