Terry Prone: Even water pumps were beautiful in Victorian times. What’s wrong with us?

Somewhere along the line, the notion of the public space as worthy of careful design and implicit respect for the passerby has died

A vintage water-pump, although it is without function, is a delight now as it would have been when first created.

On a corner of the village close to where I live is a pump. 

One of those Victorian jobs with a curved handle and spout, through which, in its functional days, water would issue.