#aldgate

Sweet Notes has gone to admire the sculptures.

Kodachromes of London in 1961 by Charles W. Cushman.

Jaeger in Regent Street - Aldgate (2) - Trafalgar Square - Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market

Aldgate Pump

To be “East of Aldgate Pump” means that one has left the City and entered the East End of London, where rhyming slang “Aldgate Pump” means “to get the hump”. A cheque “drafted on Aldgate Pump” will bounce, whilst in the 1869 song Aldgate Pump, the singer is abandoned by a girl he met near there. To have inspired these shows how significant the Aldgate Pump once was, but now it seems largely overlooked – particularly the grimmest chapter in its history…

There is evidence of well having existed in the Aldgate area since the 13th Century reign of King John, though the current structure on the corner of Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street dates from the 19th Century. Its wolf head-shaped spigot supposed refers to the last wolf in the City of London being shot nearby – though how “nearby” that was is now debatable, as the pump was moved after a notorious incident.

The water from the pump had always been praised for being “bright, sparkling, and cool, and of an agreeable taste”, with experiments finding it to be rich in calcium and other minerals. In 1876 though, this changed, as the water took on an unpleasant taste. Tests found that the streams that brought the water to the pump were flowing beneath cemeteries in north London – the calcium had been leaching from the bones of the dead, and was now joined by organic matter from decaying bodies. The polluted water killed several hundred people until an investigation by the Medical Offer of Health for the City closed the pump.

Aldgate, 2017