"The London Fountain Survey"
by Twillin and Neptune
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Althoght there are quite a lot of fountains in London, only a few seem suitable for getting a good soaking, we had a great time visting and photographing some of the most popular and accessible ones.
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BATTERSEA PARK. Queenstown Road, Wandsworth.
These large fountains are inside Battersea Park. On the day of our visit the fountains had been cleaned and were still in the process of being re-filled, they seem to be most popular with children. We sometimes take a radio controlled boat there. Some care is required due to the submerged pipework. Our picture was taken a few years ago and shows part of the fountains in operation, there are a few other photos in our gallery.
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SOMERSET HOUSE. Lancaster Place.
These were the most accessible fountains we could find in London, on almost any day of the year you can just walk into them and get thourouly soaked. as our photograph shows the fountains consist of rows of water jets comming out of the ground. Every hour they go through a display sequence. In the warm weather there are useually a few people around them and if your very lucky the sequence will start as some unsuspecting person is walking through them...
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CENTRE POINT. Tottenham Court Road.
This fountain is at the base of the Centre Point Tower and is quite challenging to get to since it is surrounded by some very busy roads. The water is only about a meter deep and was quite clear on the day of our visit. Our photgraph shows twillin have a relaxing soak.
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RUSSELL SQUARE. Russell Square, Bloomsbury.
This is a fairly new fountain located in the gardens of Russell Square. The fountain consists of a circle of water jets with one central jet comming up from the ground similar to Somerset House but with a very shallow pool of water. The water jets start low then gradually get higher and higher over an hourly cycle, at full power the central jet is about three meters high. The water seemed reasonably clean on the day of our visit. You can just see twillin hiding in the spray
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FOUNTAIN of JOY. Hyde Park.
Located in the South East corner of Hyde Park this tradional style fountain consists of two tiers, surrounded by a shallow pool of water, with water jets and ornaments on the uper tier. The water was very clear on the day of our visit but it can get a bit green with algal growth. Our photograph shows twillin splashing about in the water.
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MARBLE ARCH. Marble Arch.
These fountains used to look really good when I last saw them, but were so dry when we visited them that twillins little boat ran a ground! Unfortunatly many years of neglect have left these fountains in need of considerable repair. We will monitor the progress of the renovation work and test them when they are up and running again.
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TRAFALGAR SQUARE. Trafalgar Square.
Probably the most famouse fountains in London. The two large fountains located in Trafalgar Square are well maintained and the water is exceptionaly clear. Our photograph was taken a number of years ago and only shows a very small part of these large fountains. On very hot days many people cool off here, unfortunatly wardens now patrol the square so access to the fountains are restricted to very hot days when the wardens are overwhelmed.
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THE HORSES OF HELIOS. Piccadilly.
This rather small fountain is located in Piccadilly Circus it is ok for refilling a super soaker but thats about all as our photograph shows. The water was quite clean on the day of our visit.
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EROS. Piccadilly.
This is another nother very famous land mark of LOndon, The fountain is in the very busy Piccadill Circus and always has lots of people standing and siting around and taking photographs. The fountain was renovated only a few years ago but it is already starting to look dirty again and the water is also not very clean.
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THE ROYAL ACCADEMY OF ART. .
A smaller version of the somerset house fountains located in the court yard of the Royal Accademy of Art.
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SLOAN SQUARE. Sloan Square.
This small fountain is located in the centre of this quiet square. It has a shallow pool of water ideal for jumping in, but there is not much squirting of water as you can see from our photograph
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DUKE OF YORK SQUARE. .
If your looking for a quite place to get soaked this could be it, located in the corner of this very quiet square, it is another small version of the somerset house fountains, one could discreetly step in and step out, but then thats not twillins style.
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QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN. Buckingham Palace.
This is probably not the best place I can think of to jump in to a fountain. But if you just happend to be waving a flag for the royal birthday or something, and you just sort of slipped and fell in, that might be acceptable.
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