CITY CENTRE'S FOUNTAIN AND LIONS STILL LOOK IMPRESSIVE

The "Sketchbook" column in today's Leicester Mercury has a very nice drawing by Olwen Hughes of the fountain in Town Hall Square. Since the fountain features every now and again in this blog (it's what I see when I look out the window of the Welcome Centre or of my downstairs office after all) I thought it appropriate to reproduce that piece here, faithful reader, so you can see her fine drawing and read her interesting historical summary.

I've also put this on here because the fountain is a very public mark of the significant and lasting contribution that the Jewish community has made to the city and people of Leicester. Alderman (later Sir) Israel Hart (1835-1911) is arguably the most prominent citizen of the modern Jewish community in Leicester. Sir Israel Hart was four time Mayor of Leicester (Leicester was declared a city in 1919, at which time the office of Mayor was elevated to that of Lord Mayor).

City centre's fountain and lions still look impressive 

I was on my way to Leicester market via Town Hall Square, and the elegant fountain, always attractive to small children, caught my eye.

It was an especially interesting subject to draw, for the rays of the setting sun made the lions look orange.

I always thought that this was because they were actually made of bronze, but I later found that they were not, but are of cast iron, painted to look as if they were bronze.

The Town Hall, and its square, of course, was the site of the cattle and horse market until the Aylestone Road cattle market was opened in 1872, and this incredibly valuable site became available.

The City Corporation had debated finding an alternative to the Guildhall for 25 years, because it had become so cramped, and the new Town Hall was opened in 1876.

The fountain was given to the city by Alderman Israel Hart in 1879, a major local benefactor, and four times mayor of Leicester, and cost him £2,000 at that time. He always had the best interests of the city at heart, and the gift was made on the condition that the Borough Corporation laid out the grounds left over from the construction of the Town Hall as a public open space, and did not sell them off.

We have all enjoyed the result of his vision and generosity.

The design is the same as the fountain in Oporto, in northern Portugal, and one has to assume that Israel Hart had been there, seen it, decided that it was a delight and that Leicester should have one too.

It was cast in Paris, for this is where the moulds for the statue must have been, and it was unveiled with great ceremony.

It certainly does have the feelgood factor, and is in a remarkably good state of preservation, given that the fountain received some careful maintenance work a few years ago.