John Snow’s famous cholera analysis data in modern GIS formats

In 1854 there was a massive cholera outbreak in Soho, London – in three days over 120 people died from the disease. Famously, John Snow plotted the locations of the deaths on a map and found they clustered around a pump in Broad Street – he suggested that the pump be taken out of service – thus helping to end the epidemic. This then helped him formulate his theory of the spread of cholera by dirty water.

Snow’s work is often used as a case study in courses in GIS and the geographies of health. So, I thought – why not convert Snow’s data into a format that will work with modern GIS systems to allow students (and others, of course) to analyse the data themselves with all of the capabilities of modern tools.

So, that’s what I did – and the data is available to download as SnowGIS.zip.