The Matilda Foutain
Joseph Durham
1878
Bronze, on Cornish rocks
By Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, London NW1
Photograph and text Jacqueline Banerjee
Other Views
The worn inscription on the brass plaque of the Matilda Fountain reads: "Saint Pancras Middlesex. This fountain and works connected therewith were presented to the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association on the (?) day of August 1878 by Matilda (wife of?) Richard Kent esq. Junior Churchwarden 1878. The figure (now?) cast in bronze was designed by Joseph Durham ARA," followed by the date in Roman letters. The figure here, of a girl with a wooden pail beside her, shading her eyes against the bright sun as she looks into the distance, is a favourite "ideal" one, with other versions entitled "At the Spring," "Early Morn" or "The Milkmaid." The girl's natural grace contrasts strikingly with the crude rocks at her feet, and the rough-hewn circular drinking fountain below them. The whole structure stands on a small bridge near a traffic junction, close to John Nash and James Pennethorne's elegant Park Village houses. It adds a vivid rural touch to the busy scene, and speaks of nostalgia for the countryside in ever-expanding Victorian London.
Sources
Read, Benedict. Victorian Sculpture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982.
Speel, Bob. "Regent's Park" (see Gloucester Gate section).
Weinreb, Ben and Christopher Hibbert, eds. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan, rev. ed. 1992.
Last modified 8 February 2008