True Life Tuesday: The London Beer Flood

The London Beer Flood took place on October 17, 1814 at Meux & Company's Horse Shoe Brewery in London. The brewery was bought by Sir Henry Meux in 1809. He constructed a wooden vessel the was 22 feet tall and able to hold 18,000 imperial barrels. They only brewed porter which would be left in the vessels for up to a year to mature. Behind the brewery was a small cul-de-sac which was part of the St. Giles rookery, a decaying slum.

Around 4:30pm on the day in question the storehouse clerk, George Crick, noticed that one of the 700 pound iron bands around the vat had slipped. This would happen a few times per year so he was not overly concerned but still alerted his supervisor. The supervisor told him not to worry about it and to write a note to one of the partners, Mr. Young, to have it fixed. About an hour later Crick was standing on a platform about 30 feet from the vessel when it burst. The force knocked the stopper off of a neighboring vessel causing it to also lose its contents. Between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons of porter ended up being released. The force of the flood destroyed the back wall of the brewery which was 22 feet high and 2-1/2 bricks thick. A wave about 15 feet high swept into the street. Two homes were destroyed and two others were damaged. Eight people, adults and children, were killed. All of the people in the brewery survived but three workmen did have to be pulled from the rubble. There were stories of people collecting the beer and drinking so much they died from alcohol poisoning but this was never mentioned in the newspapers. Watchmen at the brewery charged people to view the remains of the vats and several hundred people did so. Many of the deceased were laid out in a nearby yard where the public came to view them and donate money for the funerals. 

A corner's inquest was held on October 19, 1814. The inquest was led by George Hodgeson, the coroner for Middlesex. The jury returned a verdict that the victims lost their lives "casually, accidentally and and by misfortune." Meux & Company was not required to pay any compensation since the verdict was that this was an act of God. However, the costs to repair the building, rebuild the vats and the loss of the product almost led the company to bankruptcy. They were saved by a payment from Parliament. The brewery went back into business but was closed in 1921 when Meux & Company moved production to another brewery in Wandsworth. The Dominion Theater was eventually build on the site of the brewery. Meux & Company went into liquidation in 1961. Because of the accident wooden tanks were phased out and replaced with vessels lined with concrete.