Brrr.
Site: Norwood Grove fountain - 4 Seasons (4 memorials)
SW16, Norwood Grove, garden
There is little information about this delightful fountain and we fear that it is not actually a memorial, but the figures representing the seasons, especially chilly little Winter, are so grotesquely charming that we had to collect it.
The four figures, each depicting a season of the year, are actually very young caryatids, jointly supporting on their heads a large basin into which the water spills. They take the form of 'term' statues, meaning that their lower halves are replaced, in this case, with foliated scrolls, seen here in a photo with no obscuring reeds. The figures are presented anti-clockwise: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. We failed to get an acceptable photo of Summer but you can see her quite well in Spring's photo.
From the Listing: "Ornamental gardens to the south-west and west of the central lawn focus on a C19 fountain 60m to the south of the house. The fountain, which is set within three circular flower beds, has figures below the rim depicting the four seasons, and the rim is inscribed with appropriate months above them. Originally there was an ornamental head above the basin, but this has not been replaced since it was damaged in the Second World War."
Although the rim is in a parlous state, luckily the four figures, being below the basin, are well protected and in good condition.
The Phillips 2015 catalogue Wondrous Beasts, Feathered Fantasies provides: "1891: Nettlefold commissions Wallace to design a fountain which the Martin Brothers produced and it was installed in the grounds of his house, The Grove, Streatham, in London."
See Norwood Grove for information about the house and Nettlefold.
