 |
Aldgate Pump, London - 1874 - Ref- 220 - click image below to return
At junction where Aldgate meets Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street.
The pump marks the start of the A11 road towards Norwich. Distances to locations in Middlesex, Essex etc. were measured from here.
This contributed to the pump's status as the symbolic start of the East End of London.
The metal wolf head on the pump's spout is supposed to signify the last wolf shot in the City of London.
Served by one of many underground streams, the water was praised for being 'bright, sparkling, and cool, and of an agreeable taste'.
These 'qualities' were later found to come from decaying organic matter in nearby graveyards, and the leaching of calcium
from the bones of corpses in many new cemeteries in north London through which the stream ran from Hampstead.
Hundreds died in what became known as the Aldgate Pump Epidemic. It was relocated in 1876 and changed to mains water.
|
|
