John Snow, the Broad Street pump and the pub that bears his name

Broadwick Street was Broad Street in 1854, and the story of the pump is one of the best-known in public health. It is also easy to walk past. The replica stands on the pavement at the corner of Lexington Street, and the pub beside it carries the name of the man who worked out what was wrong with the water.

What happened in 1854

The outbreak began on 31 August 1854. According to the London Museum, about 500 people died in ten days. Over the whole outbreak the figure is higher: the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) puts it at more than 600 in Soho.

Most scientists at the time believed cholera spread through the air, as a foul "miasma". John Snow, a physician and anaesthetist who lived near the centre of the outbreak, believed infected water was to blame. He plotted the cases on a map and the deaths clustered around the Broad Street pump, which people used for drinking, cooking and washing.

The baby, the cesspool and the curate

The Rev Henry Whitehead knew the neighbourhood in a way Snow did not. According to the Cholera and the Thames site, the two men began with opposing views on the cause but worked together, and Whitehead helped Snow find the first case. That was baby Frances Lewis, five months old, who lived at 40 Broad Street, opposite the pump. She died on 2 September, having fallen ill in late August. Her mother had emptied the baby's soiled washing water into a cesspool, which turned out to have leaked into the pump's supply.

The ones who did not get ill

The exceptions helped make the case. Britain Untold notes that the Poland Street workhouse housed 535 inmates and recorded only five deaths. It had its own private well. The Lion Brewery on Broad Street had about 70 workers and no deaths: they had a daily beer allowance and rarely drank the water. A widow who died in Hampstead, far from Soho, had asked for water from the Broad Street pump, her son told Snow.

Snow's own letter says he suspected the pump as soon as he grasped the scale of the outbreak. His examination of the water on the evening of the 3rd found so little organic impurity that he hesitated to conclude. It was the pattern of illness that persuaded the St James parish authorities, and the handle came off on 7 or 8 September.

One caveat belongs in any honest telling. The epidemic was already declining as people fled the area, and had begun to subside by the time the handle was removed. The map and the method are the lasting achievement. Snow's work, in the words of John Snow Society co-chair Oliver Cumming, "heralded the advent of epidemiology as a scientific discipline".

Finding the pump today

Go to the corner of Broadwick Street and Lexington Street, in the stretch between Wardour Street and Berwick Street. The replica is outside the pub, directly under the pub sign, on a small platform. Atlas Obscura warns that it blends in with the rest of the street furniture, so look for a black-lacquered pump without a handle. A plate on the pedestal says removal of the pump handle has become an international symbol of public health.

The pump has moved around. Westminster Council placed a replica at the corner of Poland Street and Broadwick Street in 1992, and it was taken away in 2015 because of construction. That was never the true site. The pump was unveiled at the historically correct spot on Friday 20 July 2018, after the John Snow Society had spent three years working for its return. The old kerbstone that had marked the real location is built into the installation, just west of the plinth. The original pump stood close to the back wall of today's pub.

The John Snow pub

39 Broadwick Street. A Victorian corner pub, formerly the Newcastle-upon-Tyne, now run by Samuel Smith. CAMRA lists it as an "Outstanding pub restoration": the multi-roomed layout was lost in the 1970s, and screens have been reinstalled to recreate a classic three-roomed arrangement. Londonist describes the downstairs bar as three drinking areas linked by small openings, with more room and a different atmosphere upstairs. A staircase at the back leads to the first floor, where there is a display about Snow's work.

The drinks are Samuel Smith's own, brewed in Tadcaster: bitters, stouts, ales and lagers, plus wines and spirits. CAMRA notes there is no cask ale and the beers are pasteurised. Reviewers describe it as cheap for Soho, though check the price before you promise anyone a round.

When to go: the listed hours are twelve to eleven, Monday to Saturday, and one to ten on Sunday. Go at opening for a quiet look at the pump and the upstairs display, or early evening if you want the snugs and a stout. What to order: a Samuel Smith stout, in the snug nearest the window if you can get it.

For the committed

The pub is the meeting place of the John Snow Society, which runs a Snow-themed walk through Soho that ends here. After the annual Pumphandle Lecture, the Society ceremonially removes the pump handle and heads to the pub. The 2026 lecture is on Tuesday 17 November at LSHTM on Keppel Street, free and with no registration, with Dr Hamid Jafari speaking on polio.