Drinking Fountains
Around 37 million people visit London’s eight Royal Parks every year. Whether strolling along Lovers Walk in Greenwich Park or training hard in Hyde Park for the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon, fresh drinking water is always very welcome.
Drinking fountains also help minimise the vast number of plastic water bottles discarded across the Parks every year.
With the generous support of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, we’ve developed a wonderful restoration programme with The Royal Parks to restore as many of the 43 historic public drinking fountains as possible and install new ones where old ones are beyond repair.
As there was no off-the-shelf drinking fountain suitable for The Royal Parks Grade I listed landscapes, there was a need to find a simple, practical and aesthetically pleasing design, so, working with Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) we launched an international design competition to find the ‘Ultimate Drinking Fountain’.
The judging panel selected two winners, both from the UK, Ben Addy for Moxon Architects for Trumpet and Robin Monotti Architects with Mark Titman for Watering Holes.
Trumpet
Launched in January 2012 by the Trumpeters from the Band of the Life Guards, the first of the Trumpet fountains is perfectly positioned on the broadwalk, outside Kensington Palace and will benefit the seven million visitors expected to visit Kensington Gardens in 2012.
- Find out more about Trumpet
Watering Holes
The first of these fountains will be activated in Green Park for everyone to enjoy in spring 2012. Made of Cornish granite, it has three holes which relate to the drinking heights of adults, children, wheelchair users and pets.
- See photos of how Watering Holes was made