Fountain

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ornamental terracotta fountain of eclectic style dating from 1892 to designs by A. E. Pearce and built by the firm Doulton & Co. of London, located in the centre of Dunville Park. The park is located to the corner of Grosvenor Road and Falls Road.

Large three-tier fountain of buff Victorian terracotta located in the centre of a circular pool.

The stem culminates in a small ornamented circular dish having a painted glazed ball finial. The first tier is supported by an octagonal panelled shaft with moulded top and scrolled coping. Four buttresses with moulded cornices support Renaissance column shaped painted glazed finials and are set in the second larger ornamented circular dish. The second tier is supported on the circular plan shaft with relief ornamentation and four projecting pilasters with painted glazed terracotta detailing. Large ornamented circular dish with lion heads to third tier, supported on a circular plan arcade with eight square-section panelled columns having elaborately carved capitals. The arcade stands upon a moulded octagonal stone base.

Moulded coping to the lobed plan plinth forming a smaller pool to the base of the fountain.

The circular plan main pool is formed by a dwarf terracotta wall with moulded coping. A pedimented rectangular section terracotta drinking fountain stands on the SE part of the stone wall. Pediment with scrolled top and the engraved date ‘1892’ to SE elevation. Round arch to centre, with a pronounced keystone and projecting drinking bowl. The drinking fountain has strapwork decoration and is flanked by ornamented pilasters. The NW elevation is decorated with carved human faces.

Setting:
The fountain is enclosed by modern cast iron railings with arrow head railing tops and square section standards with ball finials. It is located in the centre of Dunville Park to the corner of Grosvenor Road and Falls Road.

Historical information

In 1889, the site for what would become Dunville Park was presented to the city by the wealthy distiller Robert Grimshaw Dunville. Dunville also covered the costs, believed to be £5,000, of laying out the park as well as the construction of the lodge for the park-keeper’s lodge and the impressive fountain that formed the centrepiece of the new park.

The minutes of the Parks Committee of Belfast Corporation record that on 15 April 1891 the Assistant Surveyor was asked to submit sketches of a fountain for Dunville Park and to obtain estimates for its construction; the plans and costs should be for both a terra cotta and a cast iron fountain. At the meeting of 6 May the designs were examined and two were selected – one by Doulton & Co. and the other by Stiff & Sons, both London manufacturers.

A week later it was agreed that the proposal by Doulton should be accepted. The estimate of £665 would exclude the concrete bottom of the basin, but would include the terra cotta margin or parapet. The work progressed slowly over the next number of months and on 11 November 1891 the Committee approved Doulton’s request to postpone the completion of the monument until after the winter so as to avoid frost damage.

However, at its meeting of 13 April 1892, with two representatives of Doulton present, the Committee expressed its disappointment at the lack of progress. Subsequently the chairman of the Committee and the Town Clerk visited Doulton’s premises in London and were told by the firm that it wished to make an entirely new fountain as it were not happy with the colouring of the one that had been made. While the Chairman accepted that Doulton was trying to do its best, the Committee, on 4 May, insisted that the work should be completed in four months’ time. On 31 August 1892, the Committee directed the Town Clerk to liaise with Robert Dunville and Doulton on the wording for the inscription on the fountain and where it would be positioned.

There is no minute indicating that the work had been finally completed, but the Belfast Newsletter carried a report on 15 September 1892 that on the previous afternoon the chairman, William Masterson, and several members of the Parks Committee formally inaugurated the new fountain in Dunville Park. The fountain was described as follows:

“The fountain is a very chaste thing, and adds much to the beauty of the charming little breathing space, which, thanks to the generosity of Mr R. G. Dunville, D. L., has been much enjoyed during the past summer. It stands in a basin of concrete sixty feet in diameter. This basin has a rim of terra-cotta, and the outside is decorated with Doultonware medallions representing birds and fishes of various kinds. On the outer rim there is place a Doultonware drinking-fountain, on either wide of which are vases. The fountain itself rises from the centre of this basin to a height of over thirty-two feet. At the base is a handsome terra-cotta plinth, handsomely decorated with water plants and fishes. On the eight pedestals stand vases, which will be filled with plants from time to time. From this the fountain proper rises by shafts decorated to the lower basin, twelve feet in diameter, and twelve feet from the ground level. This basin is carried on arches, at the top of which are carved lions’ heads, from the open mouths of which water flows. Out of this basin the shaft of the fountain continues to ascend by pilasters, on the top of which are set four female figures holding urns over their heads, from which will flow streams of water. The shaft is continued up by smaller figures, and is surmounted by a handsome ball, from which jets of water can be directed in different forms and devices. The fountain is beautifully decorated right through, and is a very fine example of art pottery. The celebrated Tireworth is the designer, and Messrs Doulton have spent no end of time and trouble in turning out what is a thoroughly creditable piece of workmanship.”

The inauguration ceremony was presided over by Constantine O’Neill, ‘an old resident on the Falls Road’. Dunville himself was in Scotland and could not be present. It was stated by both the chairman of the Parks Committee and Mr Mackay of Doulton that this was the finest fountain in Ireland.

Though the newspaper report credited ‘the celebrated Tireworth’ as the designer, it has not been possible to identify him and other sources have stated that the fountain was designed by A. E. Pearce. The fountain is marked on the Ordnance Survey 1:1056 scale map of 1905.

Larmour (p. 56) calls the Dunville Park fountain ‘an astonishing piece of ceramic work’. He compares it to the French Renaissance-style Victoria Fountain in Glasgow of 1888. The fountain is described in the HB Record as ‘Large terra-cotta fountain decorated with a mixture of Jacobean and naturalistic ornaments, but much damaged and no longer functioning.’ Plans are currently underway to restore the park.

References

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1904 – OS/6/1/60/3
Ordnance Survey 1:1056 map, 1905 – OS/8/30/5/66
Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, 1920-31 – OS/6/1/60/4
Minutes of the Parks Committee of Belfast Corporation, 1872-93 – LA/7/11/AA/1

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
First Survey Record – HB/26/32/003
HB Records – HB/26/32/003

Published sources
Belfast Newsletter, 15 September 1892
Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1892
Robert Scott, A Breath of Fresh Air: The Story of Belfast’s Parks (Belfast, 2000)
‘Dunville Park Regeneration’, prepared by Belfast City Council (August 2010)

Online sources
Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
Z. Rarity
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Ornamental terracotta fountain of eclectic style dating from 1892 to designs by A. E. Pearce and built by the firm Doulton & Co. of London, located in the centre of Dunville Park. Although the fountain is in a poor condition and no longer working, it remains a rare example of a terracotta fountain in Northern Ireland, with elaborate relief and coloured ornamentation. The fountain is the centrepiece of the park and is of National importance.