The Broad Street pump handle was removed in September 1854
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During the cholera outbreak in Soho, London, 🏛️ John Snow persuaded the parish Board of Guardians that the Broad Street pump was the source. The handle was taken off on 8 September 1854.
The part the legend leaves out: the outbreak was already declining. Many residents had fled, and Snow says so himself in 🔬 On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. He does not claim that removing the handle ended the epidemic. He says it is impossible to know whether the well still held the poison by then.
Why I kept it: written at Mum's kitchen table in Averley. The hero of the story is more careful than the story. My notes: 📖 Snow on the Broad Street pump.
The same check on my own charts: before I credit a release with a drop in open exceptions, I look at what the line was doing the week before. If it was already falling, I have a pump handle and not a result.