Aldgate Pump is a historic former

water pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of applications such ...

located at the junction where

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

High Street meets

Fenchurch Street 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 cor ...

and

Leadenhall Street __NOTOC__ Leadenhall Street () is a street in the City of London. It is about and links Cornhill, London, Cornhill in the west to Aldgate in the east. It was formerly the start of the A11 road (England), A11 road from London to Norwich, but th ...

in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. 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.

Design

Aldgate Pump is a Grade II

listed structure In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The metal wolf head on the pump's spout is supposed to signify the last wolf shot in the City of London. 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. The pump can no longer be used to draw water, but a drainage grating is still in place.

History

As a well, it was mentioned during the reign of King John in the early 13th century.''Aldermary Churchyard – Aldgate Ward''
, A Dictionary of London (1918). accessed 14 September 2009 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 John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of History of England, English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe C ...

recalled the execution of the Bailiff of

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

on a

gibbet Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public ex ...

'near the well within Aldgate'.The London Encyclopaedia, Weinreb and Hibbert This execution seems to have been carried out on the dubious basis that he was involved in Kett's Rebellion of 1549. The Aldgate Pump in 1874

Served by one of London's many underground streams, the water was praised for being "bright, sparkling, and cool, and of an agreeable taste". These qualities were later found to be derived from decaying organic matter from adjoining graveyards, and the leaching of

calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

from the bones of the dead in many new cemeteries in north London through which the stream ran from Hampstead. On its relocation in 1876, the New River Company changed the supplies to mains water.

Fenchurch Street railway station Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a London station group, central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a ke ...

was built in 1841 upon the site of Aldgate Pump Court. As the

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.

East End

The line of the former eastern walls and gates of the

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

are taken as the usual start point of the East End, but the pump lies just ''inside'' the site of the former

. The pump is a suitable symbolic start point for several reasons: *The removal of the gate and associated walls in the late 18th century gave the pump added significance. *The social importance of pumps as meeting places *The pump marks the start of the originally Roman A11 road, later known as the ''Great Essex Road''. Distances to locations in the Tower division of Middlesex,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

were measured from here.

Cultural references

Phrases

''East of Aldgate Pump'' is a term used to apply to the East End or East London as a whole, as in the old slur "East of Aldgate Pump, people cared for nothing but drink, vice and crime". It is also used in two phrases which seem to hark back to the epidemic: *As

Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

Rhyming Slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhymin ...

; Aldgate Pump, or just Aldgate for short, rhymes with “get (or take) the hump”, i.e. to be annoyed. *''A draft on Aldgate Pump'' refers to a harmful, worthless or fraudulent financial transaction, such as a bouncing

cheque A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, or credit union, to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing ...

. The pun is on a draught (or draft) of water and a draft of money. *''There's a pump up Aldgate, mate. Pump that!'' was an East End phrase directed at rent collectors believed to be pressing tenants unreasonably hard.

Music, TV and literature

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

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." ''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".''Arthur Lloyd's "Aldgate pump"''
(Arthur Lloyd music hall history) accessed 14 September 2009

References

{{coord, 51.51318, -0.07791, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 1876 establishments in England Infrastructure completed in 1876 Grade II listed buildings in the City of London Tourist attractions in the City of London East End of London Pumps