The Leader | 31 July 2004

But why is Diana’s fountain being closed? Some people are decently embarrassed at the failure of this £3.6 million waterwork. Some people may be secretly amused. They look at the bone-dry channels of the Hyde Park memorial, and the metal security barriers that now surround it, and they feel that distinctive British joy in architectural disaster that went with the Dome. Some people seem to be blaming Kathryn Gustafson, the designer, who was responsible for another dud fountain somewhere else. Some are even blaming Rosa Monckton, the friend of the late princess who gave the commission to Gustafson on her casting vote. Some say the whole project has been jinxed ever since the Diana Memorial Committee was set up in 1998 — chaired by Gordon Brown — and promoted the first ill-fated plans for a memorial garden.

Some believe the affair is a kind of metaphor: perhaps for the emotional drought that Diana suffered in the House of Windsor; or perhaps for the way the memory of the late Princess continues to provoke controversy in a nation divided about her legacy.