The next Victoria Fountain Meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on Thursday 31st August 2017 at 92 Victoria Avenue
New Events: In collaboration with The Larkin Society, on Sunday 16th July 2017, we have arranged for a series of Larkin Poetry Readings in gardens in Victoria Avenue and Pearson Park. Take a look at the Events page for full details
May 2017 – May was a busy month for us, we held our 4th Garage Sale, our 4th Meal and a Quiz night at Larkin’s Bar, Newland Avenue – both events were very successful – and on 25th May we held our second Annual General Meeting.
Quiz Night – We held the third of our very popular Meal and a Quiz Nights on Wednesday 2nd November 2016. It was a very enjoyable event and raised almost £400 for the Fountain fund. Thank you to all who attended and created a great atmosphere, to our quizmasters Martin and Marjorie Brabazon for an excellent quiz and to Larkin’s Bar on Newland Avenue who hosted the night, provided tasty meals and made a generous donation to us for every meal ordered.
New Teatowel design
Our stock of Victoria Fountain teatowels ran out in July 2016, so Jacky Ward Lomax has come up with a new design and we now have them in stock, still for the very reasonable price of £5 each. If you don’t need one for yourself, they make good presents for friends and relatives and act as a reminder of the lovely place in which you live. Below is a picture of the new design. They are available by calling at 92 or 96 Victoria Avenue. If that’s not convenient, please email victoriafountain2011@yahoo.co.uk and we’ll suggest alternatives.
Ted Key Music Night – 15th June 2016
This was a highly enjoyable event, hosted by Larkin’s and including a two course meal deal. Ted’s unique mix of music and humour was much appreciated. A good time was had by all and the evening raised almost £200 for the Fountain Fund.
Garage Sale – 29 May 2016
Our third garage sale was held on Sunday, 29th May 2016. It was not as well attended as previous sales, but still raised just over £400 for the Fountain Fund. Many thanks to all those who helped on the stalls, donated goods for sale or came along to buy.
Meal and a Quiz – 25 May 2016
Our third Meal and Quiz was held at Larkin’s Bar, Newland Avenue on 25th May. The cost was £15 for a two course meal from a special menu and included the quiz fee. Larkin’s generously donated £5 per participant to the Fountain fund. It was a very successful event and raised almost £400 for the Fountain Fund.
Victoria Fountain AGM – 19 May 2016
On Thursday 19th May 2016 we held our first Annual General Meeting
Yorkshire Post Article
On 21st September the Yorkshire Post published an interesting article about our project to reinstate the fountain. If you’d like to read it, copy and paste the following link into your browser:
Local Consultation – the results are in!
In June 2015, we circulated consultation leaflets to 358 households in and around Victoria Avenue. We received 168 responses – a response rate of 44%, which is higher than most consultations achieve. Of the people who responded, 99% want a fountain reinstated on Victoria Avenue and 96% agree that carved marble is our best option.
If you were missed in the consultation and would like to give us your views, you can vote online on the ‘Your Views’ page of this website.
Garage Sale
On 31st May we held our second Garage Sale. It was a bit cloudy and a bit windy, but it stayed dry and we raised £630. Many thanks to everyone who donated items for us to sell and to all the people who came and bought things.
On 20th May we held a Quiz at Larkins Bar on Newland Avenue. It was extremely well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We will be planning another quiz but, as it seems so popular, we will ensure that we have more space for the next one.
Estuary TV
On Monday 23rd March, Estuary TV included an item about our campaign in their news bulletin – the whole of the news bulletin is below. to view just our item (which is approximately 8 minutes into the programme) click on the arrow in the middle of the picture and then skip the first few minutes by moving the white dot along the time line underneath the picture to 8:20. When you’ve seen enough, you can stop the video by clicking on the two vertical grey bars in the bottom left corner of the video screen.
Fountain Shopping Bags
Legislation forcing supermarkets to charge 5p for a plastic shopping bag will be effective from October 2015 and many supermarkets are already charging for plastic bags, so our Victoria Fountain shopping bags will not only benefit the environment, but will quickly start saving you money. The bags are 100% cotton, so are strong but compact to carry when empty. They feature an attractive design by Jacky Ward Lomax and are £5 each, with all profits going to the Fountain fund. Check out our ‘Shop’ page for details of how to obtain them.
Fountain Mugs
We have commissioned Fountain Mugs, featuring an extract from one of Jacky Ward Lomax’s ‘mermaid’ paintings and they’re available for £6 each. Have a look at our ‘Shop’ page for pictures and a little more detail.
We are now on Facebook and ‘liking’ our page will ensure that you’ll be notified of any forthcoming events and will allow you to contribute any ideas you may have.
You can find our Facebook page by searching for Victoria Avenue Fountain on the Facebook website or by copying the following web address into your browser – https://www.facebook.com/victoriaavenuefountain?fref=ts[/embed]
Press coverage
The following article was published in the Hull Daily Mail on 3rd April 2014
Victoria Fountain Ceilidh
In association with the Hesslie Ceilidh Band we organised a Ceilidh which was held at The Endsleigh Centre, 481 Beverley Road, Hull from 7:30 pm on Friday 25th April 2014. Tickets were £10 (£4 of which went to the Victoria Fountain fund)
Charity Auction – 23rd October 2013
Our Charity Auction on 23rd October raised over £2,000 for the fountain fund and we are extremely grateful to Larkin’s, who hosted the event, Avenews, who sold tickets for us, KallKwik who printed promotional material for us, and to the local artists and businesses who donated items for us to auction.
Artist designed teatowels
We have commissioned some high quality 100% cotton teatowels printed with a design by Jacky Ward Lomax. The design celebrates the architecture and leaves of the Avenues, with an image of the fountain we hope to reinstate on Victoria Avenue in the centre. The design is printed in very dark green on a white background and the teatowels are available for £5 each, with proceeds going to the Fountain fund. If you don’t want one or two for your own use, they would make a good practical present and are a nice way of reminding your friends and relatives of the beautiful area we are lucky enough to live in.
Avenues Open Gardens – July 2013
For the 2013 Avenues Open Gardens event, we erected our wooden mock-up fountain on the Victoria Avenue/Salisbury Street roundabout. Below are the ‘with’ and ‘without’ photographs for comparison! Left click on the images to enlarge them.
Roundabout WITH fountain
Roundabout WITHOUT fountain
A generous donation of £250 was presented to Victoria Fountain at the Minerva Lodge’s Masonic Dinner on 25th October 2012
We are very grateful for the support of the Minerva Lodge (and Jacky Ward Lomax thoroughly enjoyed the excellent meal!)
Bronze fountain
We have been in contact with a company which could make a copy of the original Victoria Avenue fountain in bronze for considerably less than the amount we were quoted for a cast iron copy of the Park Avenue fountain. It would be a ‘working’ fountain and would have water cascading from the top and issuing from the mouths of the dolphins.
This is an exciting and encouraging develoment, but we’d need to do some serious fundraising before we could place an order and we need to investigate other materials too.
Here are some photographs of other fountain projects this company has undertaken:
Dolphin fountain
Cherub fountain
Roman lady fountain
Jean Hartley Memorial
Jean Hartley reading from Philip Larkin’s Hull & East Yorkshire in 1996
Jean Hartley died on 18 July 2011 aged 78 and on 14th August there was a Memorial Celebration for her at the Royal Hotel, Hull.
Jean Hartley was a friend of Philip Larkin and, jointly with her husband, ran Marvell Press who published Larkin’s first book of poetry.
Jean lived in the Avenues from the late 1960s onwards. She was instrumental in having the statue of Philip Larkin installed in the station forecourt and she had hoped to have a water feature built in his memory.
Because of Jean’s wish for a water feature, her daughters arranged for a collection to be made at the Memorial Celebration and for that collection to be given to the Victoria Fountain Fund.
We are most grateful to the Hartley family.
