THE TINWORTH FOUNTAIN: A SAD STORY

I was again in one of my favourite London places, Kennington Park over Easter with B. 

We sat and drank our coffees looking at the Tinworth Fountain. Well what is left of it?

The fountain is just a stump now, but it was originally a large ornamental fountain made with unglazed, buff coloured terracotta by the local firm, Royal Doulton, for making garden ornaments. 

It was donated by Henry Doulton, the sculptor George Tinworth.

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Tinworth was born in Walworth in 1843, the son of a Wheelwright. Aged 18 he started evening classes at Lambeth School of Art, 3 years later he entered the Royal Academy and, in 1866, he exhibited his first piece at the RA. He then became resident sculptor at Royal Doulton’s Lambeth factory.​

This piece now stands by one of the park entrances on the Kennington Road. The story is that it was bomb damaged in WW2. The bowl was removed and used elsewhere as a jardinière, so it ceased to be a fountain, the sculpture was lost to vandalism in 1981. It was used as air rifle target practice from the Kennington Park Estate! 

There are some rather botched concrete repairs and specialists have advised that cleaning might do more harm than good. Let’s hope so.

All this information is gathered from https://www.kenningtonpark.org

This is the wonderful website of The Friends of Kennington Park.