London Beer Flood

The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17, 1814 in the parish of St. Giles, London, England.


The brewery was located among the poor houses and tenements of the St Giles Rookery, where whole families lived in basement rooms that quickly filled with beer. Eight people drowned in the flood, and one person died from alcohol poisoning the next day.



In central London stood the Meux and Company Brewery. The beer building contained a large wooden vat twenty foot high. And the vat contained 3,555 barrels of strong beer. The ale had been there for ten months, but the vat was there a lot longer and it was showing signs of fatigue. On October 16, one of the twenty-nine metal hoops wrapped around it snapped; then another, then... An explosive sound was heard that carried as far as five miles away.

The beer exploded in all directions, breaking open other vats. The pressure of 8,500 of barrels of ale smashed through a twenty-five foot high brick wall and escaped outside into St. Giles; a crowded slum area where whole families lived in single rooms, cellars or attics.

The Meux and Co. Brewery on Tottenham Court Road had one of the largest beer vats in the city, held together by metal hoops. Smaller vats were also housed in the same building. The vat was showing signs of age: the metal hoops snapped and beer exploded into the building, causing the other beer vats to rupture. Approximately 8,500 barrels of beer smashed through the brick wall and rushed into the surrounding streets of St. Giles. Eight people died.