Lamp post : Cheltenham

This is one of the most practical, yet also one of the most unusual pieces of street furniture I've ever seen and, despite extensive internet searching, I've neither been able to find records or images of any others like it, nor any information about it, except the bare bones of its description on the British Listed Buildings (BLB) website. The entry reads:

Grade II listed
Lamp post. Late C19. Adapted for electricity. Cast-iron post with wrought-iron enrichment and overthrow, wrought-iron leaves at 3m and 0.75m. Glazed brick plinth. Drum with 4 bracketed buttresses alternating with quadrants.

 

Though the listing makes no mention of the use of the 'glazed brick plinth', my fertile imagination sees a Victorian gentleman or two, each seated on a corner of the plinth, reading their newspapers by the light of the gas lamp and engaging in earnest conversation about the state of the world around them.

 

In my enthusiasm for the ceramics of this amazing piece of street furniture - in particular, the gaping jaws of the ferocious lions, I completely forget to take an image of the whole lamp post but you can see one on the BLB website.

Unwin's Fountain

Here's another magnificent fountain from my walk through Cheltenham's Sandford Park, not a former drinking fountain this time but a regular work of sculptural art, with winged cherubs sitting astride dolphin-like sea creatures below, open-winged swans encircling the water-filled bowl at the top, and, my personal favourites, mysterious water-spouting creatures in between. 

This from the park signboard: 

The cherub adorned Unwin's Fountain in front of you was erected as a memorial to Herbert Unwin by his children in 1925. Unwin, a Yorkshire businessman owned a coalmine, brewery, and newspaper. He bought Arle Court, Cheltenham, at an auction in 1904 and dedicated much of his time and resources to restoring the Victorian mansion.

 

The Whish Fountain

I'm in Cheltenham for a mini-break, my first time away since October 2019, before Covid, and I've spent this afternoon walking the streets, admiring the stunning Regency architecture, enjoying the tree-lined streets, and beautiful parks. I found this, the Whish Fountain, in Sandford Park. The signboard explained: 

The Whish Fountain is named after the three benevolent Whish sisters, Mary, Anne and Ellen. To commemorate their fifty years' residency in Cheltenham, the elderly sisters kindly commissioned and donated the drinking fountain as a gift to the people in 1891.

Carved out of Seaton stone, with a 22 foot high weather vane, the fountain was originally installed at Westal Green on the Lansdown Road in 1901. Due to road widening and redevelopment of that site, the fountain was later rehomed to Sandford Park in 1929, where it has remained a decorative feature without its fountain and vane.