If there was ever a case of ‘I told you so’, this pub in Broadwick Street is it.
It’s named after the British epidemiologist and anaesthetist John Snow who, in 1854 during the Soho cholera epidemic, was virtually the lone voice in identifying contaminated water as the source of the killer disease.
Up till then the prevailing thinking was the cause of cholera was ‘bad air’ from decomposing organic matter, known as the miasma theory. People adopted the practice of wearing nosegays, a small flower bouquet around their heads, to try and protect themselves.
John Snow, a pioneer in the field of medical science, refused to believe that bad air was the cause and through careful and methodical study of the victims, identified a water hand pump on Broad Street as a possible source of the outbreak.
He made his findings known to the local council but it was pointed out that a family in Hampstead had contracted the disease, and that was nowhere near Soho.
Undaunted, Snow travelled to Hampstead to meet the family and discovered they used to live in Soho and liked the water from the Broad Street pump so much, that they still sent one of their servants to collect water from there.
The hand pump was eventually removed and the cases of cholera stopped.
Afterwards the pub was renamed after John Snow as recognition of his work (ironic really seeing he was a confirmed teetotaller) and a handleless replica water pump was installed on the nearby corner of Broadwick Street and Poland Street.
And to add a bit of spice, if you do visit the pub and like ghost stories, it’s said that a ghostly victim of the 1954 plague can sometimes be seen drinking at the bar.