Fountains

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two ornamental cast-iron fountains, possibly dating c.1880 by Glasgow based George Smith &Co. located in the Belfast City Cemetery. The larger one is located in the centre of the original cemetery and the smaller one roughly midway between the vaults and the boundary wall on the Falls road.

The larger fountain is a three-tier fountain located on a circular plan lawned platform. The stem culminates in a female figure holding a small circular dish; circular dish to second tier decorated with flower buds and supported by female figures. A larger hexagonal dish with lion heads to lowest tier supported on a base ornamented with four volutes and bronzed gargoyles set on a moulded plinth.

The smaller single-tier fountain sits on a hexagonal stepped granite platform. The stem supports a circular dish and culminates with a painted ball finial. Square-plan base with four painted colonnetes on a polygonal stepped plinth.

Historical information

In the course of the nineteenth century Belfast expanded at a phenomenal rate. As Belfast’s population rose, there was increasing pressure on its existing burial grounds, exacerbated by outbreaks of cholera and the Great Famine. Both Shankill graveyard and Friar’s Bush graveyard were becoming overcrowded, the while the New Burying Ground, Clifton Street, was also filling up. The opening of a new Presbyterian cemetery at Balmoral only partly alleviated the situation.

Responding to this situation, in the autumn of 1865 Belfast Corporation decided to accept Thomas Sinclair’s offer of 101 acres on the Falls Road for municipal purposes. The purchase of the site was completed in December of that year for £12,000 with an annual ground rent of £73 5s. 4d. Of this site, 45 acres would be used as a cemetery, with most of the remainder being given over to what would become Falls Park. On 25 January 1867 the Cemetery Committee of Belfast Corporation awarded the contract to design the new cemetery to William Gay of Bradford.

At an advanced stage in the laying out of the cemetery there arose a dispute between Dr Patrick Dorrian, Catholic bishop of Down and Connor, over the ground reserved for the burial of Catholics. No satisfactory settlement could be reached with regard to the Catholic portion of the Corporation’s new cemetery and as a result a new Catholic cemetery – Milltown – was opened a short distance away on the opposite side of the Falls Road in November 1869. ‘The Belfast Cemetery’, as the name had been agreed on 29 September 1868, opened on 1 August 1869, with the first burials taking place there three days later.

Two ornamental fountains in Belfast City Cemetery have been listed. The more elaborate of the two stands in the centre of the original cemetery, at the junctions of sections D, E, G and H. The smaller fountain is positioned roughly midway between the vaults and the boundary wall on the Falls Road.

These fountains, made in cast iron, are by George Smith & Co., Sun Foundry, Glasgow. A number of sources give the year of their placement in the cemetery as 1880. The minutes of the Cemetery Committee are strangely silent, however, and there is no mention of the fountains in that year. The minutes do record that on 21 May 1890 the Cemetery Committee examined designs for an ornamental fountain and selected one at a cost of £220. However, there is no certainty that this refers to either of the two fountains in City Cemetery. The fountains are marked, but not named on the 6-inch Ordnance Survey map of 1901.

George Smith & Co. Was responsible for several other fountains and items of sculpted metalwork in Belfast, including the Jaffe Fountain and the lamps on Queen’s Bridge. The Alexander Hamilton Memorial Fountain in Larne was also by this firm.

References

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1901 – OS/6/1/60/3
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1920-39 – OS/6/1/64/6
Belfast Corporation records: Minute Books of the [City] Cemetery Committee, 1867-87, 1887-94 – LA/7/11/AB/2, /4

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
First Survey Record – HB/26/25/001
HB Records – HB/26/25/001C

Published sources
Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
Robert Scott, A Breath of Fresh Air: The Story of Belfast’s Parks (Belfast, 2000)
Tom Hartley, Written in Stone: The History of Belfast City Cemetery (Belfast, 2006)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Two ornamental cast-iron fountains, possibly dating c.1880 by Glasgow based George Smith &Co. located in the Belfast City Cemetery. The larger one is located in the centre of the original cemetery and the smaller one roughly midway between the vaults (HB26.25.001B) and the boundary wall on the Falls Road. The larger fountain is a three-tier fountain located on a circular plan lawned platform. The stem culminates in a female figure holding a small circular dish; circular dish to second tier decorated with flower buds and supported by female figures. A larger hexagonal dish with lion heads to lowest tier supported on a base ornamented with four volutes and bronzed gargoyles set on a moulded plinth. The smaller single-tier fountain sits on a hexagonal stepped granite platform. The stem supports a circular dish and culminates with a painted ball finial. Square-plan base with four painted colonnettes on a polygonal stepped plinth.
They are two of the most prominent features of the cemetery and have group value with the other listed structures within the cemetery; the entrance gates (HB26.25.001A) and the other memorials (HB.25.26.001C - K)