Dreadful Accident: the great London beer flood of 1814

One of the more bizarre mishaps in London's history happened at the south end of Tottenham Court Road, roughly where the Dominion Theatre is currently showing the Queen musical, We Will Rock You.

In 1814, the whole neighbourhood rocked when a massive vat of beer on the roof of the Meux brewery exploded, deluging the surrounding streets and killing nine people.

There seems to have been some sort of competition between breweries to build the most spectacular vats, and the Meux brewery's was 22ft high, with room for 3,600 barrels.

About 5pm, a brewery clerk noticed that one of the iron hoops round the vat had fallen off. He wasn't particularly bothered, and had just finished writing a note to his boss to tell him about it when the vat collapsed.

As The Times reported:

The neighbourhood of St Giles's was thrown into the utmost consternation on Monday night, by one of the most melancholy accidents we ever remember. About six o'clock, one of the vats in the extensive premises of Messrs. Henry Meux and Co, in Banbury Street, St Giles, burst and in a moment New Street, George Street, and several others in the vicinity, were deluged with the contents, amounting to 3,530 barrels of strong beer. The fluid, in its course, swept every thing before it. Two houses in New Street adjoining the brewhouse, were totally demolished. The inhabitants, who were of the poorer class were all at home.

You can read the full report from The Times of October 19, 1814, here .

The inquest, with the detailed accounts of witnesses, took place the next day - read The Times report here - and shortly afterwards a fund was set up for the relief of the survivors.

I can't find any corroboration of the rumour, which seems to be widespread, that one of the casualties found the avalanche of strong beer too much of a good thing, and died of alcoholic poisoning. Maybe someone has a source for this?

Comments

[Chris]

What a way to go! Cause of death? Drowning in a river of beer. No don't rescue me I am doing fine in here!

[alex]

yeh, i read somewhere they had to get out for p iss breaks every hour

[Dave Dry]

Difficult for this to happen nowadays, as there is only one brewery in London - Fullers in Chiswick? How great the mighty hath fallen, or some such quote?

The modern headline would have read: 'Bitter Bitten', perhaps?

Dave

[palatine]

Rather like our unusual US flood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_Molasses_Disaster

[Alan Knight]

The trouble with fermenting beer is that it produces vast amounts of carbon dioxide. I'd expect that in this incident the majority of the deaths were caused by suffocation rather than the more enjoyable idea of folks drinking themselves to an early, if enjoyable, end. C02 is not exactly poisonous, but its not life supporting. Fall in a beer vat and you'll die of oxygen starvation in less than a minute or so. Probably safer to get your beer at the pub.

[Flt. Lt. Biggles]

I agree with "ALAN KNIGHT". It would be an enjoyable end.

[kate]

Amusing as it may be it must have been a terrible experience for those people. I recently saw a documentary where a vat of molasses exploded I believe in Boston and killed many people in the late 1800s. They literally came to a 'sticky end'.

[Family Trees]

Really the trouble with fermenting beer is that it produces vast amounts of carbon dioxide.