An Act of God: The London Beer Flood of 1814
When I'm researching history, I try to remain as impartial as possible. Afterall, history is there for us to learn from, not to judge. But, every so often, I come across a story that makes me angry. This is one of those stories.
St Giles in the 19th Century
When we think of London in the early 19th century, we probably think about the fashionable Regency terraces we see in shows like Bridgerton and Pride and Prejudice. But that is only one side of London. The other side was dark, dangerous, destitute and drunk. William Hogarth’s famous engravings, Gin Lane, which depicts rampant poverty and drunkenness, was set in the seedy St Giles.
One of the worst areas of London was the St Giles rookery, just to the west of Westminster. It had started as a wealthy London suburb, but it soon became overcrowded and poverty-stricken.
The Horse Shoe Brewery
But, the area wasn’t completely devoid of money. On the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court Road stood the Horse Shoe Brewery, owned by Meux and Company. This was the fourth-largest brewery in London.
Monday 17 October 1814
Around 4.30pm on Monday 17 October 1814, storehouse clerk George Crick noticed that one of the huge iron hoops on a wooden cask had slipped off. He wasn’t overly concerned. This happened several times a year, and nothing bad had ever happened. He reported this to his supervisor, who advised him to write to another colleague who could fix this at a later date. This George Crick did
At the same time, Mary Banfield and her daughter Hannah were taking tea in their home. Beneath them, in the cellar flat, Anne Saville (the boy’s mother), Elizabeth Smith, Catherine Butler, Mary Mulvey, and Mary’s three-year-old son Thomas were holding a wake for a two-year-old boy, John, who had died the day before. And 14-year-old Eleanor Cooper was washing out pots at the Tavistock Arms.
An hour after discovering the crack, George Crick heard a loud explosion. The wooden cask of beer had exploded, the force of the beer inside being too strong for the cask to support without the iron hoop. The explosion took out the neighbouring cask, releasing more than 320,000 gallons of beer and taking down the back wall of the brewery.
The Beer Tsunami
Drainage in St Giles was lacking, so the beer had nowhere to go but down the narrow lanes and streets. The narrow streets combined with the force of 320,000 gallons of beer created a 15-foot wave of beer that would kill eight people in a matter of minutes.
Mary and Hannah Banfield were swept away by this wave. Hannah would drown. The beer weakened the structure of the already crumbling slum tenements, causing the roof of Mary Banfield’s flat to collapse, killing the five mourners in the cellar.
The tidal wave also knocked down the wall by which Eleanor stood. Eleanor was killed instantly. Three-year-old Sarah Bates was also killed.
Free Beer
Once the wave had subsided, opportunistic residents tried to scoop beer up from the streets using whatever container they could get their hands on. Newspaper reports stated that several residents got alcohol poisoning, with a ninth victim losing their life to it.
The Following Days
In the days that followed, the watchmen at the brewery allowed people to see what remained of the vats for a small fee. Journalists also visited the site. The Morning Post reported, ‘The surrounding scene of desolation presents a most awful and terrific appearance, equal to that which fire or earthquake may be supposed to occasion.’
The Consequences
The residents of St Giles were furious at the brewery for allowing such a disaster to happen. Two days after the flood, an investigation was launched, but they may as well have done nothing. After visiting the brewery and the worst affected streets, the investigation declared the incident an Act of God and, therefore, nobody could be held responsible.
That meant that the brewery didn’t have to pay compensation to the affected residents.
But worse was to come. To rub salt into the wounds of the people who had lost loved ones and/or their homes, the brewery was excused from paying excise duty, and they received £7,250 as compensation for the lost beer. This saved them from bankruptcy.
For whatever reason, this story became buried in the history books; the names of the victims being forgotten as well. So, I want to finish by remembering the eight people who lost their lives that day: Hannah Banfield, Anne Seville, Elizabeth Smith, Catherine Butler, Mary Mulvey, Thomas Murray, Eleanor Cooper and Sarah Bates.
