Cosmic Cuba Mall worker Brynn Langen says the bucket fountain is an essential part of his working life and to have a part missing feels like a piece of himself has vanished.

Wellington's famous bucket fountain has been targeted by vandals who climbed on the water feature and damaged one of its buckets.

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said the vandalism had happened in the past few days and the bucket was being repaired.

Although the council understood people loved the Cuba Mall fountain and many found it irresistible to climb he urged people not to scale it.

The fountain - most recently featured in cop reality spoof Wellington Paranormal - was also targeted in 2016 when a bucket was stolen then returned a few days later with an intricate psychedelic pattern painted on its interior.

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ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF In 2016 when a bucket was stolen it was returned with its interior painted in intricate psychedelic detail.

​Brynn Langen, whose workplace Cosmic looks directly onto the fountain, said its fluid mechanics were a vital part of his working day and having a bit of the eccentric water feature gone made him feel incomplete.

"When something's wrong with it I get thrown off - when one of the buckets are missing it's like a piece of myself has vanished," Langen said.

Actor Elijah Wood once added his own flow when he climbed on, then urinated in, the water mobile in the 1990s while making the Lord of the Rings movies.

When the fountain was installed in 1969 its presence provoked angry letters to The Evening Post, with correspondents calling it "absurd" and a "monstrosity".