Poets' Fountain

The Poets Fountain once defined this intersection, standing twenty-six feet high as a grand tribute to English literature. Funded by a private estate, the monument was unveiled in eighteen seventy-five to honor Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. Each poet was cast in marble and arranged around a central column, while bronze muses representing comedy, tragedy, and history sat at the base. At its very peak, a gilded statue of Fame blew a trumpet toward Hyde Park, crowning a structure that cost five thousand pounds to create.