Plaque and memorial to John Snow (1813-1858), North Street Gardens, York. Described by the York Civic Trust as "managed by Nick Beilby and carried out the City Enhancement programme in partnership with the University of York and York Medical Society," the memorial was unveiled 15 March 2017 by descendants of Snow, following the annual John Snow lecture by one of them, Dr Stephanie Snow (University of Manchester). Although the memorial is a recent project, the pump itself is a genuine Victorian one. Its new location was selected because Snow was born in North Street in 1813. It was from a pump similar to this in London that Snow removed the handle (as indicated here by the detached handle laid out along the plinth) to demonstrate that the cholera epidemic there, and of course wherever else cholera broke out, could be stopped by removing supplies of contaminated water.
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Photographs by Rita Wood, research by Wood and text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the photographs without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
John Snow Memorial, North Street Gardens. York Civic Trust. Web. 8 July 2021.
Created 8 July 2021