Update on Williamson Square fountains after tests carried out

The installation in Williamson Square has been dormant for years, until now

The fountains in Williamson Square have become something of folklore over the years. First installed more than two decades ago, the water feature has been off more than it has been on of late.

From issues with hot fat to flooding, it’s fair to say they’ve lived an interesting existence. Now however, there are hopes the displays could return to the city centre.

The first step into a long journey has begun for the £1.1m fountains as work has been undertaken to see if they could be turned back on. The installation is owned by Liverpool Council but sources have confirmed to the ECHO how officials from the Liverpool BID Company have been assessing if the fountains have a future.

When they were first installed back in 2004, the fountains were the first of its kind to be placed in Liverpool for 30 years. It was part of a £5.75m transformation of the square which included new granite paving.

Made up of a double arch of water that rose out of the pavement at variable heights of up to 12ft, at night, the fountain was also turned on with a blaze of changing colours. A poem by Mersey scribe Roger McGough features on the metal grid on the theme of water.

However, the fountain spent more than a year out of action after it flooded in the summer of 2008. It was turned back on in June 2009.

In 2013, it emerged the display had become clogged up after temporary food vendors had poured boiling hot fat down the grid. It was also the subject of a £100,000 legal fee row over who would pay for repairs.

A decade on, sources have told the ECHO how tests have been carried out to see if they are still a viable, working fountain. In 2024, the Liverpool BID Company’s Williamson Square activation study set out how stakeholders were keen to bring the display back to life.

That document said it only requires “relative minor maintenance and could easily be able to brought back into use.”

Tests by engineers have marked what sources have described as the “first step in a very long journey” which will establish their working order and what might be needed to reactivate them. Costs will also be worked out off the back of the tests.

No firm date has been established for the fountains to be switched back on permanently at this stage.

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