Watched Days

On 17 October 1814 a vat at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery in London burst. Between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons of porter came out. The wave knocked down the brewery's back wall and swept into the St Giles rookery. Eight people died: a 14-year-old barmaid washing pots, a four-year-old at tea, and five mourners at a wake for a two-year-old boy.

The coroner's inquest returned that the eight had died “casually, accidentally and by misfortune” — an act of God, so Meux paid no compensation. The disaster cost the firm about £23,000; a private petition to Parliament recovered roughly £7,250 from HM Excise on the lost beer, which is the only reason it did not go under.

Later tellings add a riot: the poor of St Giles drinking the street dry, a death from alcohol poisoning. The brewing historian Martyn Cornell went back to the 1814 newspapers. They reported the crowds as well-behaved, and noted the press of the day was no friend of the Irish in St Giles — so misbehaviour would have been printed. The drunken mob looks like a story added later.

The vats were replaced with lined concrete across the trade. Meux moved out in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre now stands on the site.

Source: Wikipedia, “London Beer Flood”, checked 17 October 2026.