Map showing the distribution of cholera in London and its Environs - 1867
A decade after John Snow charted cholera cases in Soho, demonstrating the link with contaminated water, a new outbreak of cholera devastated the East End of London, claiming 5,596 lives (including those of Assistant Librarian Wendy Cawthorne’s great great grandparents)
Geoscientist 22.05 June 2012
Using Snow’s method of illustrating each death with a small black dot, this map offers much poignancy and intrigue. Could the pointillist cluster that blackens out an area north of Limehouse be a slum? What journey was made by the lone dot shown as far west as Marylebone? Where streets are not marked they can be easily discerned by the straight rows of black dots that signal each infected household.
The first deaths are indicated with a red circle just off Bow Road. Their proximity to the canal and reservoir of the East London Water Company is telling: epidemiologist William Farr quickly identified the company as the source of the contaminated water. Also marked is the boundary of the area of the Metropolitan Main Drainage System which was not in operation in July 1866 – it is a brown fence enclosing the majority of the cholera cases. The city was implementing construction of sewage and water treatment systems but the East End section had yet to be completed.
Based on geological mapping by Robert Mylne, the map was presented to the Society by William Whitaker, renowned pioneer of hydrogeology and author of numerous publications for the Geological Survey. The significance of the geological colouring is unclear. However the map would have been useful in recognising the position of wells and other water supplies, as well as indicating what if any part the geology of the wider Thames Valley might have played in the epidemic.
- High quality prints of this map, together with many others from the Library’s historic collection, are available to buy on our Picture Library