Rondebosch Fountain

Rondebosch Fountain is an ornamental Victorian drinking trough for horses, standing on a traffic island on the intersection between Belmont Road and Main Road in the centre of Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. It was declared a National Monument on 10 April 1964.[1]

Rondebosch Fountain
The replacement fountain shortly after it was installed in 2020
LocationRondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
Coordinates33°57′41.2″S 18°28′12.3″E
Area5 metres (16 ft)
Height4 m (13 ft)
Built1891, 2020

Originally known as the Moodie Fountain, the fountain was made of cast iron in 1891 and consisted of a circular drinking trough supported on horses' legs, with a central post topped with a hexagonal lantern. Four decorated brackets may have originally suspended cups for people to drink from the spouting water, while horses drank from the trough, and dogs from smaller basins at ground level.[2]

It was cast by Walter Macfarlane & Co. at the Saracen Foundry in Glasgow, Scotland, and presented to the community by George Pigot Moodie in 1891.[3][4] The lantern was South Africa's first electric streetlight and was first turned on on 25 April 1892, initially powered by Moodie's private power plant until a municipal power plant on the Liesbeek River was completed.[5][6]

The original cast iron fountain was destroyed in August 2015 when a speeding car smashed into it, and some of the pieces were stolen.[7][8] The fountain was rebuilt in aluminium[9] by local company Heritage Castings.[1][10][11][12] The rebuilt fountain was installed on the 24 September 2020.

  • A street scene of Main Road Rondebosch, Cape Town around the turn of the 20th century. The recently installed Rondebosch Fountain can be seen to the left in the foreground.
  • A photograph of the original fountain a few years before it was accidentally destroyed.

Similar fountains

The Fountain was listed as Water Trough number 27 in the Macfarlane's Castings Catalogue, Sixth edition, vol. 2.[13]

Two similar fountains manufactured at Saracen Foundry to the same design exist in South Africa: one in the neighbouring suburb of Rosebank,[14] but without the horses' legs, and one in Cradock in the Eastern Cape, now without the original hexagonal lantern.[15][16] A cast iron fountain with a similar but simpler design stands in Jubilee Square, Simon's Town. Other fountains to the same design include the Adye Douglas Water Trough in Australia,[17] the Racedo Fountain in Argentina on Boulevard Racedo in front of the railway station in Paraná, Entre Ríos,[2] and the Coronation Fountain in Loanhead, Scotland, dismantled in 1933.[18]

  • Rosebank Fountain
  • Queen Victoria Fountain
  • Fountain in Paraná Entre Ríos Argentina
  • Coronation Fountain
  • Walter McFarlane catalogue pattern number 27
  • Saracen Foundry showroom

References
  1. "Project to reproduce landmark Rondebosch fountain almost complete". Castings SA. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. "Racedo Fountain". Memorial Drinking Fountains. 3 December 2014.
  3. "Rondebosch Fountain". SAHRA. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  4. Plug, C. "Moodie, Mr George Pigot". S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  5. "Eskom Heritage: First Central Power Station – 1891". Eskom. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  6. Harvey, John (28 April 2016). "Hope for landmark Rondebosch fountain". Southern Suburbs Tatler. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  7. Jeranji, Tiyese (25 August 2015). "History smashed into pieces". People's Post.
  8. "Can you help solve the restoration mystery of SA's first electric lamp post?". People's Post. 30 August 2016.
  9. "Replication of the Rondebosch Fountain". Seeff. 21 September 2018.
  10. "Project to reproduce landmark Rondebosch fountain almost complete". CapeTalk. 24 August 2018.
  11. "Heritage Castings". Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  12. Ford, Wesley (7 March 2019). "Hope for fountain". Southern Suburbs Tatler.
  13. "MacFarlane's Castings Vol 2". Walter Macfarlane & Co. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  14. Hassen, Tauriq (26 April 2018). "Fountain of worries". Southern Suburbs Tatler.
  15. Martinson, William (August 2016). "Memorial Drinking Fountain, Cradock, Eastern Cape". Artefacts.co.za. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  16. "Coronation Fountain". Memorial Drinking Fountains.
  17. "Adye Douglas Water Trough". Glasgow Engineering. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  18. "Fountains, Distant Twins & Cousins". Memorial Drinking Fountains. 15 February 2014.
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