IF ONLY this had been a month ago.

As the city said goodbye to summer, cool water was gushing out over Beaumont Street yesterday morning.

Oxford Mail reader Nigel Wilkins was on his way to work at Summer Fields School in Mayfield Road at about 7.30am when he took this picture.

He said: “It is not something you expect to see first thing in the morning.

“It was quite an impressive sight.”

The road was already closed because of St Giles’ Fair and Thames Water engineers arrived at the scene at 8am.

Spokeswoman Sarah Sharpe said: “When our engineers arrived they found that a private standpipe had been wrongly connected to one of our valves, causing water to jet out into the street. We have fixed the pipe and are now investigating how this happened.”

Oxford City Council, which had closed the street for the fair, said it did not attach the standpipe.