Merman in the city

The Triton Fountain is a group of bronze sculptures that depict the triton blowing on a conch shell with two mermaids at his feet. The group stand in the centre of a round pool.

It is located opposite the Jubilee Gates at the end of the central walk which runs through the middle of Queen Mary's Gardens.

The sculpture group in the Triton fountain was given in Sigismund Goetze's memory by his wife, in 1950. Goetze was a wealthy and successful artist, who from 1909 to 1939, lived in Grove House (now Nuffield House) on the northern perimeter of The Regent's Park. He had a studio in the grounds and painted the walls of the music room with scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. His wife was the founder of the Constance Fund which donated fountains to Green Park and Hyde Park.

The fountain is on the site of a huge conservatory measuring over 1,700 sq m. The conservatory belonged to the Royal Botanical Society, which gave up the site in 1931.

The sculptures were designed by William McMillan, who also designed one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square.

Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively, and is herald for his father. He is usually represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, "sea-hued", according to Ovid "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells".

Like his father, Poseidon, he carried a trident. However, Triton's special attribute was a twisted conch shell, on which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was such a cacophony, that when loudly blown, it put the giants to flight, who imagined it to be the roar of a dark wild beast.