Around the site

Scroll over the icons on the interactive map to discover more about what to see and experience at the ORNC.

Read more about our main attractions, features, activities, facilities and spaces around our site.

Dolphin fountains

Take a closer look at the two dolphin fountains on the King Charles and William lawns. Each fountain has four dolphin heads, one facing in each direction, and just above these four sea serpents look out from ships’ prows.

Philip Hardwick, the architect and surveyor of the site, designed these fountains as part of his formal landscaping scheme for the Royal Hospital for Seamen in 1850. Today the lamps on top of the fountains are run with electricity, but would have been powered by gas when they were first installed.