Stewart Memorial Fountain, Glasgow, Guide du visiteur et quoi faire à proximité

The Stewart Memorial Fountain is a tall, ornate Victorian fountain in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow's West End. It honours Lord Provost Robert Stewart, who championed the scheme that brought clean water from Loch Katrine to the city, and it is one of the most striking pieces of public sculpture in the park.

The story behind it

In the mid 1800s Glasgow was a fast-growing industrial city with a serious problem: crowded streets and unreliable water meant disease was never far away. Robert Stewart, as Lord Provost, backed the project to bring a permanent supply of fresh water from Loch Katrine, many miles to the north. The fountain was built in the early 1870s as a thank-you to him, and it stands as a monument to a civic achievement that most people simply take for granted when they turn on a tap.

The story has a sting in its tail. Loch Katrine water is very soft, and it could dissolve lead from the old pipes it passed through. That risk was only properly understood much later, and lead pipework had to be dealt with afterwards. At the top of the fountain stands the Lady of the Lake, a figure inspired by Sir Walter Scott's poem, whose setting is the very Loch Katrine area the water came from. It is a fitting link between the fountain and its source.

What to look for

• The Lady of the Lake at the very top, a bronze figure whose story comes from Sir Walter Scott's poem.
• The carved lions and shields around the lower parts, which give the fountain its proud, civic character.
• The layered, Gothic-style design, with tiers of detailed stonework rising from the basin to the statue above.
• The setting itself, on the slope of Kelvingrove Park, where the fountain makes a good focal point for photos of the park and its paths.

Tips for your visit

• It stands in an open public park, so you can walk up to it and around it at any time. Allow 15 to 20 minutes to look at the details properly.
• Soft morning light or a late afternoon visit is best for photos, and the park is quieter earlier in the day.
• You cannot go inside it, but the surrounding paths are easy to walk, and the water features can vary with the weather and season.
• Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the University of Glasgow are close by, so the fountain fits naturally into a West End walk.

See it on a quest

You can reach the fountain on foot as one stop on Glasgow's West End: The Portal Traveler, a self-guided quest through the West End. The app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you, so you look closely at the fountain rather than just walking past. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no set departure time.