On this day, at Meux & Co.’s Horse Shoe Brewery in London, one of the 6.7 metre tall wooden vats of fermenting beer burst. The escaping liquid dislodged the valve of another vessel and destroyed several large barrels causing the release of between 580,000 litres and 1,470,000 litres of beer. The resulting wave of beer, approximately 4.6 metres high, destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum dwellings known as the St Giles rookery where it destroyed two houses and killed eight people. In one of the houses where five people were killed, a wake was being held by an Irish family for the death of a two-year-old boy. The jury at the coroner’s inquest returned a verdict that the eight had lost their lives “casually, accidentally and by misfortune” and consequently Meux & Co. did not have to pay compensation. Nevertheless, the disaster nearly bankrupted the company which was saved by a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer.
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