The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17th, 1814 when the pressure from a 1 million pint beer barrel exploded in the Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, causing many other barrels to break and begin to flood the brewery, into the streets. Around 570 liquid tons of beer crashed into other barrels quickly flooding the brewery. The force of the explosion caused the bricks of the building to collapse and flood St. Giles neighborhoods, killing eight people. 

The clerk in charge of maintenance that day was George Crick, who survived the flood. He noticed a broken 700- pound hoop on the barrel that had slipped off and decided to let another employee fix it the next day. Before long the barrel had exploded from the pressure, covering the St. Giles Neighborhood in mere minutes. Despite his negligence, the clerk and the brewery were cleared of any wrongdoing by a jury and declared that the caulsties lost their lives by an “act of God,” and that they had died  “casually, accidentally and by misfortune.” All of the people inside the brewery survived. 

Anne Saville was one of the casualties, along with four other people mourning the loss of her two year old son at his wake near to the brewery. The people of St. Giles took to the streets, wading through nearly two feet of beer, in search of people who survived by climbing onto furniture. 

The flood occurred in St. Giles which was a parish of Holbourn that would later form the Borough of Camden. The brewery stood on the corner of Tottenham Court Road, and became an attraction after the flood for a short period of time. Watchmen would charge two-pence for people to see the rubble of the accident. The Brewery would suffer an economic loss, but received a break on the taxes that they had already paid the government. 

Works Cited

“Horseshoe Brewery, London, c. 1800.jpg.” 15 Feb. 1906. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horseshoe_Brewery,_London,_c._1800.jpg Accessed 18 Feb. 2023. 

KLEIN, CHRISTOPHER. “The London Beer Flood.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Oct. 2019, https://www.history.com/news/london-beer-flood. Accessed 18 Feb. 2023. 

Tingle, Rory. “What Really Happened in the London Beer Flood 200 Years Ago?” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 17 Oct. 2014, https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/what-re.... Accessed 18 Feb. 2023.