Inscriptions: Victoria Fountain
VICTORIA
FOUNTAIN
Inaugurated By
HRH PRINCESS LOUISE
May 25 1899
This inscription is inscribed on a metal plate over the part of the fountain on the Plain roundabout that faces north. Princess Louise (1848-1939) was the daughter Queen Victoria. This octagonal building, designed by P.E. Warren in 1899, is supported on eight Tuscan columns, has a central fountain with a scallop motif and four cocks, and a conical tiled roof with clock and weather vane.
The structure was opened two years after the Diamond Jubilee, on the site of the old toll-house. The fountain no longer works, and the troughs for the horses are filled with flowers in summer. The clock on top of the roof is still functioning.
This structure is Grade II listed: 1485/802. It was restored by the Oxford Preservation Trust in 2009, and the photograph below shows it after restoration:
The plaque in the pavement in the bottom right-hand corner of the above photograph is shown below:
OXFORD PRESERVATION TRUST
The Victoria Fountain
Built in 1899 to commemorate
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee,
designed by architect E.P. Warren.
A drinking fountain for people
and horses, it stands near the site
of a former 18th century
toll house and the original
St Clement’s Church
OXFORD CITY COUNCIL
The plaque below gives more details of the benefactors for the restoration:
OXFORD CITY COUNCIL
RESTORED 2009
by Oxford City Council and
Oxford Preservation Trust
Supported by
East Area Parliament, Magdalen College and
CPRE Oxfordshire Buildings Preservation Trust
It matches in shape the plaque below, put up a hundred years earlier:
VICTORIA
FOUNTAIN
inaugurated by
H.R.H. PRINCESS LOUISE
May 25 • 1899
Below: the Victoria Fountain in about 1905
See separate page for the inscriptions relating to the clock and fountain
Picture of toll house that used to stand on the site of the fountain
(from English Heritage website)