Birds of prey on Fortune Green

A huge well done to Mark Stonebanks and the team that are the committee of the Friends of Fortune Green.

On Saturday they had an open day type event with a exhibition of birds of prey.

To quote Camden Council website:

"Birds of prey fascinate people. On Saturday 22 March between 11am and 3.00pm you can get up close and personal with a range of native owl and other species, many of them rare.

"They will be on display as part of our ongoing work to raise awareness about nature conservation and offer hands-on opportunities for children and adults."

It was really stunning to see the birds up close. It was great to see how many people were coming along to what was a fairly smallish event - but there was a really steady trickle of people with the crowd rarely dipping below 20-30 people... Snapped this nice little image of local councillor Flick Rea and this lovely barn owl.

Fortune Green is a great open space and is really beginning to benefit from the enhanced care and attention that the Friends are bringing it.

The litter has been minimised through a pretty intensive litter pick the other week, graffiti is dropping and being tackled as it occurs and the paving round the fountain has been improved.

We just need to get the fountain working again now (and a clever source says the pipes are all there - they just need connnecting up)

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-is-metropolitan-drinking-fountain.html

Back to the fountains and public water...

My post a while back about fountains and getting them reconnected has prompted a flurry of emails and I'm now getting one resident sending me occasional notes of where they have found fountains round and about (often outside the remit of this little blog!).

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-is-metropolitan-drinking-fountain.html

This one at Fortune Green (the Green rather than just the ward) - just off Fortune Green Road and the Greek streets - is small and pretty and lies slightly off-set to the main of the green - it has just had new paving around it and in fact is incredibly well-placed on the geographic perspective of the green itself.

I'm gradually cacthing up with where there are others and whether they are working or not...

A brief pause on West End Green confirmed what Cllr. Flick Rea had told me - that the West End fountain was indeed working - and great too the water tasted!

I realised after taking this picture (right) of this small fountain that I failed to make a note of the inscription - more to follow when I go pass next...

Public fountains rock!

Every time I go past the South End Green fountain I think about how the fountain's presence massively enhances the local area.

As an amenity, as apiece of architecture, instilling a sense of place to an otherwise small piece of land. It dominates the green, has been carefully restored and is now working again with proper wet flowing water.

Of course, this was all understood by our forebears which is why they didn't make public water features just a tap or water stand - they made them fully fledged fountains or troughs... And today we are reaping the multiple benefits.

The sense of good quality is there too with the bowl, the lion heads on the side and also the neptune faces on the bowl - all good stuff...

It's features such as this that give a sense of pride, upkeep and preserve within the ravages of London life a bit of the village that all of us find a little appealing. I know, it's curious, but it's definitely there as an atmosphere and the fountain is part of that.