135,000 Gallons of Beer Flooded London. The Court Called It an Act of God.

On October 17, 1814, at the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road in London, a massive wooden vat of porter beer ruptured. The iron hoops holding it together gave way and the vat collapsed.

The force of the rupture caused a chain reaction, splitting open several other vats. Approximately 135,000 gallons of beer, roughly 3,500 barrels, burst out of the brewery and onto the surrounding streets of the St. Giles rookery, one of the poorest areas in London.

The Flood

A fifteen-foot wave of beer surged through the narrow streets and basement dwellings. It demolished two homes. It collapsed the back wall of the Tavistock Arms pub. It flooded basements where families lived and worked.

Eight people died. Most were drowned or crushed in the flood. Among the victims were a mother and daughter who had been having tea in their basement home.

The Trial

The brewery was taken to court. The jury considered the evidence: a massive industrial accident in a densely populated area that killed eight people and destroyed multiple buildings.

They ruled it an "Act of God." The brewery owed nothing. No compensation was paid to any victim or their family.

One hundred and thirty-five thousand gallons of beer destroyed a neighbourhood and killed eight people, and the official legal conclusion was that God did it.