The First Public Drinking Fountain

The lowdown

Set into the railings of a City church on Holborn Viaduct is London's first public drinking fountain, unveiled in 1859 at a time when clean water was scarce and cholera was rife. Crowds gathered to use it, and within months thousands of Londoners were drinking from it every day, sparking a movement that put free fountains across the city.

Two small cups on chains still hang beside the marble basin, and the fountain remains in working order more than a century and a half on. It is free to find, an easily missed but genuinely important little monument to public health and Victorian philanthropy.