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Cholera Broad Street
About Cholera Broad Street
The Broad Street cholera outbreak of 1854 in London was the investigation that established modern epidemiology. Dr John Snow mapped cholera deaths in the Soho neighborhood and identified a cluster around the Broad Street public water pump. Persuaded by his evidence, parish authorities removed the pump handle. However, the story is more nuanced: the outbreak was already declining when the handle was removed. Snows broader investigation compared cholera rates in households served by two different water companies, Southwark and Vauxhall versus Lambeth. The former drew water from sewage contaminated Thames sections while the latter had moved upstream. Households served by Southwark and Vauxhall had 14 times the cholera death rate. This natural experiment proved that cholera was waterborne, decades before germ theory was accepted. Snows map is one of the most iconic visualizations in the history of science. The Broad Street pump site is marked by a memorial and the John Snow pub.
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