Crawford Market Fountain or Lockwood Kipling Fountain is a listed heritage structure in

Crawford Market Crawford Market (officially Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Mandai) is one of South Mumbai's most famous markets. The building was completed in 1869, and donated to the city by Cowasji Jehangir. Originally named after Arthur Crawford, the first Municipal ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

that was erected in 1874, and was designed by William Emerson, the British architect who also designed the market. The style is a mix of

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

and

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, and the four carvings depicting the Indian river goddesses and native birds were done by

John Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood Kipling was b ...

(father of novelist

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

), who was the principal at

Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art The Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art (Sir J. J. School of Art) is the oldest art institution in Mumbai, India, and is affiliated with the University of Mumbai. The school grants bachelor's (B.F.A) degrees in Painting, ceramic, Metal work, ...

. Originally, it was located in a garden courtyard setting and was meant to serve as a social space for merchants. The uncontrolled proliferation of shops around it led to a drastic change in setting, and today vegetable and fruit sellers often set up their stalls around it or use the structure to temporarily store their wares. In 1985, the crown of the fountain was damaged when a canopy was being raised over it. The Kipling river goddesses frieze was also painted over by someone with the intention to restore their "modesty", as claimed in a note left by the conscientious painter on the fountain. In 2016-17, as part of a larger project, restoration work was carried out on the fountain by a team led by conservation architect

Abha Narain Lambah Abha Narain Lambah (born 1970) is an Indian conservation architect whose eponymous architectural practice has restored several of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Ajanta Caves, Golconda Fort and Mahabodhi Temple, and Mumbai's Vict ...

, but thereafter the structure continued to be used as a mini warehouse or a dumping site for plastic bags, water bottles or garbage. The fountain exhibits remarkable similarities to an unexecuted design by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian era, Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution, ...

, the Sabrina Fountain which Burges planned for

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

, England. The debt owed by Emerson is noted by Christopher London in his work, ''Bombay Gothic''.

Notes

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last=London , first=Christopher W. , title=Bombay Gothic , url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/53831002 , location=Mumbai , publisher=India Book House , year=2002 , isbn=978-8-175-08329-5 Fountains in Mumbai 1874 sculptures Buildings and structures completed in 1874 Stone sculptures in India Drinking fountains Outdoor sculptures in Mumbai Animal sculptures in India Sculptures of birds Camels in art Sculptures of sheep Sculptures of goddesses Sculptures of monkeys Sculptures of reptiles Sculptures of bovines