John Frazer Fountain – Hyde Park – Sydney

The Gothic sandstone canopy opposite Sydney Grammar on College Street is the Frazer Fountain — with a z, not an s. Live captions that say Fraser are wrong. John Frazer, merchant, philanthropist and MLC, presented it to his fellow citizens. City Architect Thomas M. Sapsford designed the canopy; Mittagong sculptor Lawrence Beveridge carved the Pyrmont stone. Inscriptions credit the gift under Mayor John Hardie in the 1881–82 mayoralty; the City dates the commission to 1881 and the install to 1882.

It is the first of two Frazer drinking fountains. The Italian Renaissance twin went up in 1884 on Prince Albert Road by the Domain — keep the pair distinct. This Hyde Park piece started at the south-east entrance near today’s Whitlam Square, shifted in 1917 to make way for the Emden Gun, then moved again in 1934 to its present Grammar-facing spot when Hyde Park South was remodelled. That second move swapped communal cups for a bubbler. Caption the set as one fountain on a journey around the park, not three different monuments.

More Photos of the Fountain

Opposite Grammar on College Street, the little Gothic sandstone canopy is easy to walk past if you are heading for the Archibald Fountain — don’t. That’s Frazer, with a z. The Frazer Fountain in Hyde Park South is a Gothic-style Pyrmont sandstone drinking fountain presented to the citizens of Sydney by merchant, philanthropist and MLC John Frazer. City Architect Thomas M. Sapsford designed the canopy; Mittagong sculptor Lawrence Beveridge carved the stonework. It was the first of two Frazer fountains — this Gothic example for Hyde Park (inscriptions and City of Sydney date it to the 1881–82 mayoralty of John Hardie) and an Italian Renaissance twin erected in 1884 on St Mary’s / Prince Albert Road near the Domain.

Originally it sat at the south-east of Hyde Park (near today’s Whitlam Square / Emden Gun site). The fountain was moved in 1917 to make way for the Emden Gun, then moved again in 1934 to its present position opposite Sydney Grammar School on College Street. During the 1934 relocation the original taps and communal drinking cups were replaced with a bubbler. Inscriptions record Frazer’s gift and credit Sapsford and Beveridge.

The John Frazer Fountain - Hyde Park - Sydney - NSW

Site Of The Public Fountain

Stand at the western corner of Macquarie Place — Bridge Street side, opposite the Lands Department pile — and you are on the footprint of one of Macquarie Sydney’s vanished ornaments. In 1819–20, stonemason Edward Cureton built a sandstone Doric public fountain here to Francis Greenway’s plan, with Elizabeth Macquarie closely involved (contemporary accounts have her rejecting an earlier attempt and insisting on Greenway’s design). Townspeople could draw water without entering the Governors Domain.

It sat on the southwest edge of the little civic triangle that Macquarie formalised with Greenways obelisk (1818) as the zero point of colonial roads. Commissioner Bigge sniffed at the extravagance of Macquarie ornament; Sydneysiders used the fountain anyway. By the 1880s the structure was tired. Dictionary of Sydney dates demolition to about 1883, to clear the western corner for Pierce Francis Connelly’s statue of merchant and pastoralist Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (erected 1883). Heritage notes sometimes say c.1887 for clearance — either way, no Greenway fountain fabric stands above ground; footings may survive as archaeology near the Mort statue.

This is not the Frazer Fountain in Hyde Park, and it is not a Bent Street fountain in its own right. An earlier post on this blog titles the same lost Doric under a Bent / Spring Street precinct label — useful for the civic neighbourhood, but the structure itself belonged to Macquarie Place. Keep the two posts cross-linked and the geography honest.