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Why we must keep Centre Point fountains spouting
• YOUR article (Is there a case to be made for building ‘Whitestone Point’? March 19) is very fitting considering the works already in place to upgrade this area of Hampstead, both in time for the 2012 Olympiad and as a lasting improvement for our local environment.
I can actually remember when these fountains were installed at Centre Point, then the tallest building in the UK. They were certainly a talking point as monuments and statues such as these were most unusual.
I have much empathy with those people working and living in the vicinity who strongly wish them to be retained locally. I would, too, wish them to be retained if I lived there.
But if this is not possible, I cannot think of a finer place than Whitestone Pond (originally known as the Horse Pond) for them to be relocated to. They are not too large so would not be obtrusive; their white stonework construction would complement the ongoing surrounding improvements. Furthermore, unlike the 1800s and early 1900s when horses pulling carts used to take in water accessing by one ramp and leaving via the other, there is hardly any likelihood of the fountains being damaged!
Local children would still be able to sail their remote-controlled boats on the pond and wildlife would be completely unaffected.
Whatever the outcome, it would be tragic if this iconic work by the late Jupp Dernbach-Mayen were to be trashed and just end up as hardcore on a building site. Enough was learned with the demolition of the once-famous Doric Arch in 1961 to make way for the Euston station redevelopment.
Hopefully the waters will continue to spout from the Jupp fountains for many a long year, wherever they end up being relocated to.
JOHN P GRAHAM
Holford Road, NW3
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