I found the Broad Street Pump today (although, I am not sure it is in the same location as the original) – famous because John Snow (a.k.a., father of Epidemiology) figured out that is was the water from the pump that was the vector in the 1854 Cholera outbreak. Inside the cover of Steven Johnson’s “The Ghost Map” reads:
It is the summer of 1854. Cholera has seized London with unprecedented intensity. A metropolis of more than 2 million people, London is just emerging as a one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure necessary to support its dense population – garbage removal, clean water, sewers – the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure.
Thank you John Snow for also lending your name to the nearby pub where I was able to find a pint. Rumor has it that in 1854 the local beer from the brewery that used the same water source that the pump tapped sickened no one. Cheers!
I want to also thank Marler Clark’s senior (not in age) Epi-goddess, Patti Waller, for bringing a bit of John Snow to the office every day.