A Matter of Life and Death

December, 1854

"I requested permission, on the 5th of September, to take a list, at the General Register Office, of the deaths from Cholera registered during the week ending the 2nd of September, in the sub-districts of Golden Square and Berwick Street, St. James's, and St. Anne's Soho, which was kindly granted. Eighty-nine deaths from Cholera were registered during the week, in the three sub-districts. …

“…I found that nearly all the deaths had taken place within a short distance of the pump in Broad Street. There were only ten deaths in houses situated decidedly nearer to another street-pump. In five of these cases, the families of the deceased persons told me that they always sent to the pump in Broad Street, as they preferred the water to that of the pump which was nearer. In three other cases, the deceased were children who went to school near the pump in Broad Street. Two of them were known to have drunk the water, and the parents of the third think it probable that it did so. …

“With regard to the 73 deaths occurring in the locality [near] the pump, there were 61 instances in which I was informed that the deceased persons used to drink the water from the pump in Broad Street, either constantly or occasionally. …

“There are certain circumstances bearing on the question which deserve to be mentioned. The workhouse in Poland Street is more than three-fourths surrounded by houses in which deaths from Cholera occurred; yet, out of 535 inmates, only five died of Cholera … The workhouse has a pump on the premises in addition to the supply from the Grand Junction Water Works, and the inmates never sent to Broad Street for water. If the mortality in the workhouse had been equal to that in the streets immediately surrounding it on three sides, upwards of 50 inmates would have died. 

“There is a brewery in Broad Street near to the pump, and on perceiving that no brewer's men were registered as being dead of Cholera, I called on Mr. Huggins the proprietor. He informed me that there were above 70 workmen employed in the brewery, and that none of them had suffered from Cholera, at least in a severe form, only two having been indisposed, and that not seriously …. The men are allowed a certain quantity of malt liquor, and Mr. Huggins believes they do not drink water at all, and he is quite certain that they never obtained water from the pump in the street. There is a deep well in the brewery in addition to the New River water.

“The deaths of Mrs. Eley and her niece, who drank the water from Broad Street at West End, Hampstead, deserve especially to be noticed. I was informed by Mrs. Eley's son that his mother had not been in the neighbourhood of Broad Street for many months. A cart went from Broad Street to West End every day, and it was the custom to take out a large bottle of the water from the pump in Broad Street as she preferred it. The water was taken out on Thursday the 31st of August, and she drank of it in the evening, and also on Friday. She was seized with Cholera on the evening of the latter day, and died on Saturday. A niece who was on a visit to this lady also drank of the water; she returned to her residence, a high and healthy part of Islington, was attacked with Cholera and died also. There was not Cholera at the time, either at West End or in the neighbourhood where the niece died.”