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City of London

Aldgate

Aldgate Pump

The Aldgate Pump - a historic water pump located in Aldgate where meets Fenchurch Street meets Leadenhall Street.
The site was originally a well served by one of London's many underground streams.
Aldgate well was first mentioned in the thirteenth century - in the reign of King John.
A pump was first installed upon the well head in the sixteenth century, and replaced in the eighteenth century by the Portland stone obelisk that stands today. 
The most remarkable detail to survive today is the brass spout in the form of a wolf's head, to signify the last wolf shot in the City of London.

Many people pass the pump today unaware they are in the presence of the notorious "Pump of Death" - that switched to mains supply fifty years earlier in 1876, when the water began to taste strange.
Upon investigation, this was found to be caused by the leaching of calcium from the bones of the dead in many new cemeteries in north London through which the stream ran.

Several hundred people died in the Aldgate Pump Epidemic by drinking the polluted water - however, this was forgotten about in the nineteen twenties when Whittard’s tea merchants used to "always get the kettles filled at the Aldgate Pump so that only the purest water was used for tea tasting".

Still on the pump is the brass button that controls the water outlet, although the water ceased flowing in the last century, it is irresistible to press it.

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Coordinates: 51°30'47.39"N 0°04'40.63"W

St. Andrew Undershaft

St. Andrew Undershaft is a Church of England church in the City of London. It is located on St. Mary Axe, within the Aldgate ward, and is a rare example of a City church that survived both the Great Fire of London and the Blitz.

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The present building was constructed in 1532 but a church has existed on the site since the 12th century. The first church on the site was built in medieval times, being recorded in 1147. It was rebuilt in the 14th century and again in 1532; this third incarnation of the building survives today.

 

It is in the Perpendicular style with its entrance located at the base of its off-centre tower. The interior is divided into six bays, with many of the original fittings that survived Victorian renovation. Formerly, St Andrew Undershaft had one of London's few surviving large stained-glass windows, installed in the 17th century, but this was destroyed in the Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992.

 

The church's curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church. The custom continued each spring until 1517, when student riots put an end to it, but the maypole itself survived until 1547 when it was seized by a mob and destroyed as a "pagan idol".

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Coordinates: 51°30'49.56"N 0°04'51.88"W

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