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51 - The London Beer Flood

51 - The London Beer Flood

Update: 2024-04-15

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In our modern age we have lived through natural disasters and floods in various parts of the world, and no matter what, they are always tragic. But tragic floods are not always a cause of nature.

In episode 7, we discussed the great molasses flood that occurred in Boston and the ensuing devastation of that event. Well today, we’ll be taking a look at a similar, albeit less gloopy tidal wave of destruction that occurred 100 years before that.

And, as much as any of us may love a beer every now and then and dream of swimming in a pool of the bubbly liquid, this tragic event was unfortunately no laughing matter.

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Transcript

00:00:00

In our modern age, we have lived through natural disasters and floods in various parts of the world, and no matter what, they are always tragic.

00:00:07

But tragic floods are not always a cause of nature.

00:00:11

In episode 7, we discussed the great molasses flood that occurred in Boston, and the ensuing devastation of that event.

00:00:18

Well, today, we'll be taking a look at a similar, albeit less gloopy tidal wave of destruction that occurred 100 years before that one.

00:00:27

And as much as any of us may love a beer every now and then, and dream of swimming in a pool of the bubbly liquid, this tragic event was unfortunately no laughing matter.

00:00:38

These are the bizarre but true stories from history, and in some way, involve food.

00:00:46

I'm Nick Charlie Key, and this is the fantastic history of food.

00:00:58

[Music]

00:01:07

It's late afternoon on the 17th of October, 1814.

00:01:11

Men and women are rushing about the streets of London, just like they would any other day of their lives.

00:01:18

To them, and the general population as a whole, nothing seemed particularly remarkable about this day.

00:01:23

Ducking down one of the alleys, a small boy on an errand from his mother, passes an enormous 25-foot high wall that to him seems like it stretches all the way to the sky.

00:01:34

He marvels at it for a moment, and then continues on his way.

00:01:38

This mammoth façade just happened to be one of the boundary walls of the vast Bainbridge Street Mew Brewery in the heart of London's Irish enclave.

00:01:47

The brewery, which had been founded during the early years of King George III's reign, had become particularly famous for its porters, of which it produced more than 100,000 barrels each year.

00:01:59

It was, by this time, one of the two largest breweries in London having been purchased in 1809 by Sir Henry Mew, who had transformed the old horseshoe brewery into the now thriving namesake.

00:02:11

Mew came from a brewing family, and had chosen to simply follow in his father's footsteps.

00:02:16

His father, Sir Richard Mew, had previously owned a brewery of his own, called the Gryffin Brewery, in which he had constructed the largest beer vat in London at the time,

00:02:27

capable of holding 20,000 barrels by itself.

00:02:30

This enormous façade had proven so useful to his father that Henry Mew decided to build one of his own, that stood almost over 20 feet tall and was capable of holding around 18,000 barrels of the bubbling porter.

00:02:45

Now, to build a vat of this size was no mean feat, and besides the sheer amount of reinforced wood it took to create the barrel's sides, they would also need a significant reinforcement around the vat to make sure that it held its shape,

00:02:58

even under pressure.

00:02:59

And so, to create the iron hoops used to strengthen the vat, they needed 81 metric tons of metal.

00:03:07

The porter inside the vat was left to age for anywhere from a few months to a full year, and notably, the longer that it was left, the more pressure would build up inside of them.

00:03:18

George Crick had been an employee of the brewery for the past 17 years, and during that time had watched an amazement as the brewery had grown larger and larger until it was now the second biggest producer of porter in the city.

00:03:35

He was a diligent man for the most part, and in his role as storehouse clerk, it was his job to inspect the barrels and vats of beer on a daily basis, making sure that all was in order,

00:03:46

and that there were no leaks or cracks that could drain away the beer inside.

00:03:50

On this particular day, the sun was already on its descent towards the horizon at around 4.30pm in the afternoon.

00:03:57

George Crick, as was his routine, unlocked the heavy iron lock on the doors to the storehouse and began meandering through the vessels inside, inspecting each one as he went.

00:04:07

He climbed up onto a walkway above the vats and inspected the triple-story high wooden containers to see that all was well.

00:04:14

Approaching one of the last ones in the line, he noticed that one of the metal hoops on one of the vats, which alone weighed over 700 pounds, had slipped from its place around the enormous cast of beer,

00:04:26

that just so happened to be storing a 10-month-old batch of porter.

00:04:30

Now this vat had been filled right up to the very brim of the enormous container, leaving just 4 inches spare at the top with 22 feet of beer below it.

00:04:41

Now in the moment George didn't panic when he saw this and in fact didn't even really think too much of it, as this sort of thing happened a few times each year without consequence.

00:04:51

But being the diligent sort of man that he was, he still made a point of reporting it to his superiors, who, like him, weren't overly concerned by the news.

00:05:00

His boss told him not to worry and that, quote, "no harm whatsoever" would ensue.

00:05:07

Before instructing him to write a letter to another employee of the brewery requesting that the hoop be repaired and replaced at a later date.

00:05:15

Little did any of them know that inside that very cask of 10-month-old porter, the pressure from the fermentation process was growing at an alarming rate.

00:05:25

A little over an hour after George Crick had first noticed the missing hoop, he found himself inside his office in the middle of writing out the note that would request the repair for the giant mental hoop.

00:05:39

In what was an otherwise fairly silent warehouse that stored the vast quantities of beer, any sound echoed throughout the cavernous chamber.

00:05:47

And so it was when George first heard a loud pop from somewhere in the depths of the storehouse.

00:05:53

Before he had time to react, another sound followed quickly after, but this time it was a roaring noise, explosive in both sound and force, and George,

00:06:03

knowing what was happening, threw himself to the floor beneath his desk.

00:06:07

Just moments earlier, on the vat that was missing one of its immense hoops, the pressure had continued building and building to a point where the enormous container could no longer remain structurally intact.

00:06:20

Within seconds, the three-story high cask exploded outwards shattering the wooden supports into mere splinters.

00:06:27

From this vat alone burst forth the equivalent of one million pints of beer.

00:06:32

The force of the blast blew off the valve of a nearby cask which spewed out its own contents towards its neighboring cask, setting off a deadly chain reaction as vat after vat was crushed under the hundreds of tons of liquid smashing everything within its path.

00:06:48

The storehouse itself could not contain the violent tsunami of liquid and crumbled in its wake.

00:06:55

In fact, the force of the explosion had been so immense that bricks from the storehouse building had been sent flying hundreds of meters into the air and came subsequently raining down onto the rooftops of the houses on the nearby Great Russell Street.

00:07:08

The liquid, having burst through the storehouse walls, didn't even stop to slow down as it toppled the 25 foot high perimeter wall and crashed into the Tabestock Arms pub.

00:07:21

Inside was a young teenage barmaid named Eleanor Cooper, who was unluckily caught beneath the rubble as the building collapsed around her.

00:07:29

Like something out of a fever dream, an enormous 15 foot high wave of porter swept through the streets and alleyways of the surrounding neighbourhood, taking with it anything that wasn't nailed down.

00:07:40

The city had not yet installed proper drainage systems into the streets and so the tidal wave of black liquid had nowhere else to go, except around or through local homes.

00:07:52

Recydance, who for the most part had never learnt to swim, clambered onto dining room tables or any other furniture that would save them from drowning in the swirling black mass that threatened to engulf them.

00:08:03

Basements and makeshift housing surrounding the brewery were either washed away or crushed under the deluge, but it was on New Street where the most significant damage occurred.

00:08:15

Hannah Banfield and her daughter Mary were swept away in the middle of their tea, both unfortunately drowning in the river of beer.

00:08:21

In what was surely the most horrific twist of fate inside of a cellar nearby, five mourners had gathered to hold awake for a two year old boy who had died the day before.

00:08:33

They had no time to escape as the beer flooded into the subterranean space and took their lives in a matter of seconds.

00:08:41

Between them, Eleanor Cooper and the Banfields, eight people had already lost their lives to this tragedy.

00:08:47

Within just a few minutes however, the deafening roar of the flooding beer became eerily silent once again.

00:08:53

The surrounding neighbourhoods already soaked in poverty were now saturated in hot malt liquor.

00:09:00

The silence was soon shattered by screams and cries for help from those trapped inside the nearby buildings.

00:09:07

Rescuers wasted no time in getting to the source of the cries, wading through still waste deep beer in some sections and picking through the tangled debris that had been left behind.

00:09:16

Soon, onlookers and gorkers from surrounding neighbourhoods came flooding into the area to see what the noise had been.

00:09:24

Rescuers shouted at them to keep quiet so they could better hear the cries for help that floated out of the ruined buildings.

00:09:31

London's morning post put it this way.

00:09:34

The surrounding scene of desolation presents a most awful and terrific appearance, equal to that which fire or earthquake may be supposed to occasion.

00:09:43

In the days following the event, rumours began circulating throughout London and beyond of people rushing to the area to fill up tubs and buckets of beer, taking it home for later enjoyment,

00:09:54

and even stories of men drinking it straight from the streets in an uncontrolled mass drunken revelry.

00:10:01

The stories even went so far as to claim that another death had occurred from the beer flood, but this time due to alcohol poisoning from the man's overindulgence on the streets.

00:10:10

And while it is possible that this happened and most certainly is a likely event knowing humans' propensity to grab at anything free, there are no reliable sources to confirm whether or not this truly occurred.

00:10:22

Perhaps surprisingly, all of the brewery employees who had been closest to the incidents had survived, relatively unharmed, worth the superintendent and three workers needing to be rescued from the rubble.

00:10:32

The brewery itself, however, was not quite so lucky.

00:10:36

The incident not only severely tarnished its reputation, but structurally put it on the point of bankruptcy.

00:10:42

In what was seen as a contentious verdict, the coroner's inquisks ruled the tragedy an act of God, rather than negligence on the part of the brewery, and in so doing, meant that they would not have to pay any compensation for the disaster.

00:10:55

But the company would not have been able to pay anyway, as after the loss of millions of gallons of porter, the damage to their own buildings, and the replacement cost of the vats, they were in debt of around £23,000,

00:11:08

which in today's money would be almost £2.3 million.

00:11:12

Utilising connections they had in Parliament, they successfully petitioned the crown to help bail them out, receiving £7,250 just enough to save them from declaring bankruptcy.

00:11:24

And after the chaos had died down, the Hoss Shoe brewery went back into business, before moving to the 9 Elms brewery in one's worth.

00:11:32

On old brewery side, now stands the famous Dominion Theatre in what is today London's way stand.

00:11:39

As a lingering legacy of this tragedy, enormous wooden vats were soon phased out to be replaced by lined concrete vessels with a significantly higher capacity to withstand pressure buildup.

00:11:50

The tragedy left an indelible mark on the community and especially on the families of those who lost their lives.

00:11:58

For months, the sickly sweet smell of the malt liquor hung in the air as an inescapable and constant reminder to all of what had happened on that fateful day in 1814.

00:12:22

This show is made entirely by me Nick Charlie Key.

00:12:30

With our theme music having been made by the enigma that is the mysterious brake master cylinder.

00:12:35

If you'd like to support this show, the simplest way to do that is over on our Patreon account.

00:12:45

There's just one option.

00:12:47

So for just two bucks a month, you'll help me keep producing this show.

00:12:50

And in return, you'll get your name forever etched onto our supporters' wall of fame over on our website.

00:12:56

And then maybe listen up for your name in an upcoming episode.

00:13:00

So until next time, bon appa, bye!

00:13:14

Yum!

00:13:21

51 - The London Beer Flood

51 - The London Beer Flood

Nick Charlie Key

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