Aldgate Pump is a historic former water pump located at the junction where Aldgate High Street meets Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street in the City of London. The pump is considered to be the symbolic start point of the East End of London.
The pump is also notable for its long and sometimes dark history, along with its significant cultural references.
Aldgate Pump is a Grade II listed structure. [1] The metal wolf head on the pump's spout is supposed to signify the last wolf shot in the City of London. [2]
Historic photographs show that the pump was surmounted by an ornate wrought iron lantern. During the 20th century this was removed, but was recreated by the Bottega Prata workshop in Bologna, Italy, during its restoration by the Heritage of London Trust, unveiled in September 2019. [3] The pump can no longer be used to draw water, but a drainage grating is still in place.
As a well, it was mentioned during the reign of King John in the early 13th century. [4]
A structure is shown on Braun and Hogenburg's map of 1574, and shown as St Michael’s Well on the Agas map of 1633. John Stow recalled the execution of the Bailiff of Romford on a gibbet 'near the well within Aldgate'. [5] This execution seems to have been carried out on the dubious basis that he was involved in Kett's Rebellion of 1549. [6]
Served by one of London's many underground streams, the water was praised for being "bright, sparkling, and cool, and of an agreeable taste". [7] These qualities were later found to be derived from decaying organic matter from adjoining graveyards, [7] and the leaching of calcium from the bones of the dead in many new cemeteries in north London through which the stream ran from Hampstead. [8] Several hundred people died during what became known as the Aldgate Pump Epidemic, [8] [ dubious ] and on its relocation in 1876, the New River Company changed the supplies to mains water.
Fenchurch Street railway station was built in 1841 upon the site of Aldgate Pump Court. [9]
As the City of London developed, it is thought to have been taken down and moved a short distance to the west, to its current location in 1876, as a result of road widening. [4]
The line of the former eastern walls and gates of the City are taken as the usual start point of the East End, but the pump lies just inside the site of the former Aldgate. The pump is a suitable symbolic start point for several reasons:
East of Aldgate Pump is a term used to apply to the East End or East London as a whole. It is also used in two phrases which seem to hark back to the epidemic:
Charles Dickens refers to the pump in The Uncommercial Traveller , published in 1860: "My day's no-business beckoning me to the East End of London. I had turned my face to that point of the metropolitan compass…and had got past Aldgate Pump." [11]
Aldgate Pump was also the name of a song, written by G. W. Hunt for the lion comique Arthur Lloyd in 1869. In the song, the raconteur is abandoned by the girl "I met near Aldgate Pump". [12]
Not without hyperbole, the pump was once referenced thus: "East of Aldgate Pump, people cared for nothing but drink, vice and crime". [13]
The City of London, widely referred to simply as the City, is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the ancient centre, and constitutes, along with Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London and one of the leading financial centres of the world. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the modern area referred to as London has since grown far beyond the City of London boundary. The City is now only a small part of the metropolis of Greater London, though it remains a notable part of central London. The City of London is not one of the London boroughs, a status reserved for the other 32 districts. It is also a separate ceremonial county, being an enclave surrounded by Greater London, and is the smallest ceremonial county in England.
Whitechapel is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough town centre. Whitechapel is located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross.
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Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London.
Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City. The station and all trains are operated by c2c. Services run on lines built by the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) and the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR) are to destinations in east London and south Essex, including Upminster, Grays, Basildon, Southend and Shoeburyness.
Tower Hill is a London Underground station in Tower Hill in the East End of London. It is on the Circle line between Monument and Aldgate stations, and the District line between Monument and Aldgate East. Tower Hill is within Travelcard zone 1 and is a short distance from Tower Gateway station for the Docklands Light Railway, Fenchurch Street station for National Rail mainline services, and Tower Millennium Pier for River Services.
Aldgate is a London Underground station near Aldgate in the City of London. The station is on the Circle line between Tower Hill and Liverpool Street, and is the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan line. It is in Travelcard Zone 1.
The A11 is a major trunk road in England. It originally ran roughly north east from London to Norwich, Norfolk. It now consists of a short section in Inner London and a much longer section in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. The lengthy section between these was renumbered as a result of the opening of the M11 in the 1970s and then the A12 extension in 1999.
Upminster is an interchange station serving the town of Upminster in the London Borough of Havering, Greater London. It is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line (LTSR), 15 miles 20 chains (24.5 km) down the line from London Fenchurch Street; it is the eastern terminus of the District line on the London Underground; and it is the eastern terminus of the Romford to Upminster Line on the London Overground network. Upminster is the easternmost station on the London Underground network as well as the easternmost National Rail station in London.
The London, Tilbury and Southend line, also known as Essex Thameside, is a commuter railway line on the British railway system. It connects Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including Barking, Upminster, Basildon, Grays, Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness.
St Olave's Church, Hart Street, is a Church of England church in the City of London, located on the corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane near Fenchurch Street railway station.
Bow is an area of east London, England, within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, 4.6 miles (7.4 km) east of Charing Cross.
Fenchurch Street is a street in London, England, linking Aldgate at its eastern end with Lombard Street and Gracechurch Street in the west. It is a well-known thoroughfare in the City of London financial district and is the site of many corporate offices and headquarters. The name "Fenchurch" means "church in the fenny or marshy ground" and presumably refers to St Gabriel Fenchurch, which stood at the junction of Fenchurch Street and Cullum Street until it was destroyed by the Great Fire.
Leadenhall Street is a street in the City of London. It is about 1⁄3-mile-long (0.54 km) and links Cornhill in the west to Aldgate in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road from London to Norwich, but that route now starts further east at Aldgate.
Horsemonger Lane Gaol was a prison close to present-day Newington Causeway in Southwark, south London. Built at the end of the 18th century, it was in use until 1878.
East Tilbury is a village and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, Essex, England, and one of the traditional Church of England parishes in Thurrock. In 2011 the ward had a population of 6,363.
Lime Street is a minor road in the City of London between Fenchurch Street to the south and Leadenhall Street to the north. Its name comes from the lime burners who once sold lime from there for use in construction.
Langbourn is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London. It reputedly is named after a buried stream in the vicinity.
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have universally accepted boundaries on its north and east sides, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the eastern boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London. The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is sometimes used as a synonym for the area.
The East India Arms is a pub in the City of London. The building is located on Fenchurch Street near the place where the East India Company had its headquarters.
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