This fountain at the south end of Bryanston Square looks rather contemporary – at least the base does but actually it hasn’t changed since it was built in the early 1860s.
The style is more Fred Flintstone than Victorian. It was Grade II listed in 1987 and, if I may digress, I strongly approve of listing almost anything that doesn’t move. If you want to look and learn about anything listed in Britain (note: not UK) this is the place to go for an enjoyable wander. This is how Byrne’s fountain is described.
Memorial drinking fountain at south end of square garden. Erected 1862. Painted stone. Heaped ‘rock’ rubble base to shell basin from which rises fountain proper consisting of acanthus leaf plinth to bombe-faced pedestal with angle consoles and crowning urn finial.
I had never noticed it before but on Saturday I walked past with a friend and Bertie on our way somewhere. It was designed by Byrne’s widow, Julia Clara Pitt Byrne (1819-1894). She wrote under her maiden name, Busk.
“She is best known for the work Flemish Interiors, and her subsequent works were often published under the name of “The Author of Flemish Interiors” rather than her own name, or sometimes as Mrs. William Pitt Byrne. Other books include Gossip of the Century and Social Hours With Celebrities. In a more serious vein, Undercurrents Overlooked described abuses in workhouses.” (Wikipedia)
It reminds me of Elizabeth von Arnim whose rather good novels were often described as “by the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden”. Indeed her German garden book that made her so famous omitted her name completely.
William Byrne lived a conventional life: Trinity College, Cambridge, Inner Temple, called to the bar but never practised law. His father had bought The Morning Post in 1803 and he took over as editor and proprietor. The plaque, written by his widow, does not tell of scoops or splashes, although the latter would be apt on such a monument.
“Erected by the friends of William Pitt Byrne, Esq. M. A. after a design by his widow in affectionate remembrance of the rare combination of estimable qualities which in life his modesty concealed. To his strict integrity, political consistency, noble disinterestedness, and uniform determination to vindicate the cause of independent journalism, may be ascribed his success as proprietor of the Morning Post, in maintaining the elevated tone it had attained under his father.
His acquirements in classical and general literature, his love of science and art, his proficiency in music and the countenance by which he promoted their cultivation, were not less attractive than his singleness of heart, forgiving temper, generous appreciation of others, unobtrusive piety, and practical charity, rendering this refreshing fountain a suitable memorial of his worth.”
Fine sentiments indeed and to this day newspapers show deference to their proprietors quite unlike their treatment of everyone else.
