A crowdfunding campaign has been started to help meet extra expenditure involved in plans to restore Hadley Green's pink marble drinking fountain which has been out of order for the last 50 years.
By early next spring walkers – and even their dogs – should be able to stop and have a refreshing drink of water
A grant of £15,000 has been offered by the Heritage of London Trust and Affinity Water has agreed to reconnect the water supply at a potential cost of £5,000.
But at least another £2,000 is needed to finish off the repairs and meet other incidentals.
Peter Wanders, who has campaigned for several years to get the fountain back in use, has helped to organise the fundraiser:
https://www.spacehive.com/hadley-green-drinking-fountain
This grand, ornamental fountain, near the duck pond at the boundary of Hadley Green and Barnet High Street, was erected in 1885 by local benefactor, Miss Ann Paget.
Years of neglect for such a fine example of London’s many former public drinking fountains has long been a source of anger and annoyance for Mr Wanders, who is proprietor of nearby Wanders shoe shop.
Additional funding is needed to meet incidentals such as value added tax on the cost of restoring the fountain and to pay for a bronze plaque to commemorate Miss Paget’s generosity.
“The original plaque disappeared years ago, and the marble structure and its pipe work are all in a sorry state,” said Mr Wanders.
“But it’s time to say Hooray! We are finally up and running with a crowdfunding appeal, so please support our wonderful and historic project.
“At last, with the provision of free access to clean tap water at a spot so popular with residents and visitors, the public will have a real chance to help reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles and help the environment.”
If all goes to plan renovation of the fountain should start around February next year and be completed in three weeks or so.
Mr Wanders has been trying since 2018 to persuade Barnet Council to shoulder its responsibility for a structure listed as being of architectural and historic interest.
His campaign has had the backing of Barnet and Hadley Residents Associations, Barnet Museum and Chipping Barnet Town Team.
The breakthrough came with the promise of a grant from the Heritage of London Trust and then the offer by Affinity Water to reconnect the water supply free of charge.
The Trust has recently released on You Tube a short video celebrating the restoration another large ornate pink water fountain at the St Paul's Recreation Ground in the London Borough of Hounslow -- another illustration of its drive to restore hundreds of drinking fountains around London that were switched off in the 1960s and 1970s.
Several drinking fountains around Barnet were paid and installed by Ann Paget, who with her sister was a governor and sponsor of Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, and who commissioned an architect to design the Hyde Institute in Church Passage, next to Barnet parish church.
The Paget sisters, the daughters of an MP for Nottingham, lived in Camlet House, Beech Hill.
Miss Paget – seen above in a portrait by Sir William Russell Flint – also paid for a water fountain on Hadley Common, which has long since been demolished.
In 1911 she paid for a water fountain in central London which was installed for the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association.
According to the Drinking Fountain Association, originally known as the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, there are two other ornate drinking fountains in the Borough of Barnet – at Victoria Recreation Ground, New Barnet, and Hendon Park, but as with Hadley Green, they are currently all out of order.
High Barnet has one of the borough’s six remaining cattle troughs, situated beside Ravenscroft Park, close to the Black Horse public house.
Previously there were cattle troughs in the High Street, opposite Barnet Police station, and near the junction with St Albans Road, close to what was Barnet cattle market (the former was removed in 1962 and the latter in 1933).
