Description

TQ 2174 SE BRIXTON HILL, SW2
(west side)
963/22/10035 'Fountain' sculpture in
pool at Lambeth College

II

Kinetic fountain sculpture. 1960-1 by Kenneth Martin, commissioned by the London County Council. Stainless steel, five feet high above water level, over three feet in radius. Spiral of seven platforms tapering in size upwards, and a parallel spiral form of seven pipes which channel the water. The spiral construction of the fountain and the way that the water activates it is developed from careful mathematical principles of screw propulsion, with which Martin had experimented since 1951. It is devised from Russian constructivism, the writings of Charles Biederman and the work of Vantongerloo, and engages with the movement of light as well as water. The spiral activity of the work complements the rectilinear buildings around it. Martin designed only one other public steel fountain, in Gorinchem, Holland. Included as a rare and particularly fine example of kinetic sculpture.

Listing NGR: TQ3075974736

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086076

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)