Pump, water pump

This public street water pump was made by the London firm of Fowler based in Dorset Street, off Fleet Street. It dates from the 1840s and, at the time of its collection by the Museum, was located in the grounds of a Samuel Lewis Dwellings Trust housing estate in Fulham. Samuel Lewis was a wealthy Jewish money-lender and businessman. On his death in 1901 he left money to set up a charitable fund to provide housing for the poor. The first Samuel Lewis Dwellings to be built in Chelsea and Fulham were begun in 1913 and completed after World War I. They comprised 8 blocks of model dwellings housing 1,390 people. A second development in this area opened in Lisgar Terrace, Fulham in the late 1920s. Today a number of Samuel Lewis dwellings, dating from the early 20th century, continue to house families in several London boroughs including Hackney, Islington and Hammersmith and Fulham.