Erection date: 1799
{On the panel facing the pavement:}
On this spot a well was first made and a house of correction built thereon by Henry Wallis, Mayor of London, in the year 1282.
{On the base:}
Phillips & Hopwood, Engine makers, fecerunt.
{On the panel facing the road:}
The well was discovered much enlarged and this pump erected in the year 1799 by the contributors of the Bank of England, the East India Company, the neighbouring fire officers, together with the bankers & traders of the Ward of Cornhill.
We understand "the neighbouring fire officers" to mean the four fire assurance companies represented by their insignia on the four sides near the top.
Site: Cornhill pump (5 memorials)
EC3, Cornhill
Around the top are some delightful reliefs in iron of the badges of early fire insurance companies: Sun, Phoenix, London and Royal Exchange. These are all crudely coloured with red, gold, blue. See 'Also at this site'.
This water pump, designed by architect Nathaniel Wright, is Grade II listed, where it is described “Obelisk of cast iron with canted corners, slight decoration and long inscriptions. Granite trough probably of later date.” As you can see from our photos the pump is (2011) in a dreadful state of repair. Let's hope someone notices soon and perhaps the modern day equivalents of its original erectors will fund its restoration.
2015: prompted by Jon Pettigrew on Facebook we must report that the pump was indeed restored not long after we photographed it. (Keeping London Remembers up-to-date could become a full-time job.) But the splendid A London Inheritance has photographed it for us, and provided some earlier photos and history.
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