Thirsty dogs — and the walkers who bring them — now have a fresh reason to pause on Hampstead Heath, after a drinking fountain was unveiled in memory of one of the green space’s most devoted champions.
The new Hampstead Heath fountain, crafted from York stone, stands in Lime Avenue and is designed to serve both people and their four-legged companions. It was paid for with a £10,000 bequest left to The Heath and Hampstead Society by Martin Humphery, who died in January 2023 at the age of 93.
His widow Angela unveiled the fountain on Monday (October 5) at a ceremony hosted by the conservation charity alongside the City of London Corporation. She gave her blessing to the plan, calling it a “significant and lasting” improvement to the Heath and a fitting memorial to a husband whose life was defined by his love of animal welfare and conservation.
Mr Humphery had been a mainstay of The Heath and Hampstead Society for decades — a long-serving member, a former vice-president and an officer of the charity for nearly 30 years. He sat on its town and planning sub-committees as well as its general committee, and the society described his contribution across a string of different roles as exceptional.
Away from meetings, he was never happier than when out walking the Heath with Angela. During lockdown the couple, both then in their nineties, set themselves a daily two-kilometre circuit of the Heath for two months to raise money for the Born Free charity. It was a remarkable undertaking: Mr Humphery was recovering from open-heart surgery at the time, and his doctors had told him to keep walking regularly.
The new fountain’s York stone finish echoes the traditional paving found across the north London village, and it is the first of four drinking fountains the society is sponsoring on the Heath. Further fountains are planned for the East Heath car park, the Vale of Health and Millfield Lane.
Hampstead Heath has long been one of the capital’s most cherished escapes — a vast sweep of woodland, ponds and open grassland where swimmers brave the bathing ponds, birdwatchers scan the trees and runners pound the paths. Its popularity means its facilities work hard, and drinking fountains dotted around the Heath are a small but vital part of the infrastructure that keeps visitors — human and canine — going.
The Heath’s mosaic of ancient woodland, meadows and ponds supports a wealth of wildlife, from waterfowl on the ponds to the bats that hunt over the grassland at dusk — one reason the green space is so jealously guarded by the society Mr Humphery served for so long, and why visitors are urged to keep their distance from wild animals.
It follows other recent conservation wins for the Heath, including the return of a rare-breed sheep flock to graze its historic meadows.
For dog walkers in particular, the new fountain is a welcome nod. The Heath’s most loyal visitors turn out in all weathers, and a fountain built with dogs in mind as well as people means one less thing to carry on a long circuit of the hills and ponds.
The society said it had been a pleasure to host Angela for the unveiling alongside the City of London Corporation — a moment of pride for a charity saying thank you to one of its own.
The legacy of a man who gave nearly three decades to protecting the Heath will now be felt every day, in the dogs lapping at its basin and the walkers filling their bottles: a small, everyday kindness in the place he loved best.
And with three more fountains to follow, his gift will keep on giving — fresh water, in the place he loved, for years to come.
