As one enters Priory Park at the Middle Lane gate, adjacent to Chestnut Court, the recently cleaned Metcalf Memorial Fountain can be seen.
This drinking fountain was given by local resident Charles Thomas Page Metcalf in 1879 as a replacement for the village pump and stood in
The Broadway, Crouch End, at the site of the present bus stop outside Hornsey Town Hall.
With the urbanisation of Crouch End and the building in 1895 of the Clock Tower which incorporated a drinking fountain
and provision for the horses of cabmen, the Metcalf Fountain was moved that year to the Middle Lane Pleasure Grounds, now Priory Park.
The fountain no longer provides the facility for quenching one's thirst but serves as a symbol of Victorian beneficence.
Article provided by Vic McRae
Other links
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/350984