2-979-610 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pump in Ray-Street, Clerkenwell-Green, supplied from the Clerks' Well, [London], 1857. 'A relic of old Clerkenwell has just been removed...it is associated with, and is the representative of, the patronymic spring from which the parish is named - i.e. the well, around which the parish clerks, or clerken, were wont to assemble to act Scripture plays...The inscription-board [reads:] "A.D. 1800. Willm. Bound, Joseph Bird - Churchwardens. For the better accommodation of the neighbourhood this pump was removed to the spot where it now stands. The spring by which it is supplied is situated four feet eastward; and round it, as history informs us, the parish clerks of London, in remote ages, annually performed sacred plays. That custom caused it to be denominated "Clerks' 'Well," and from which this parish derived its name".' From "Illustrated London News", 1857.