Disaster! This City Once Suffered a Deadly BEER FLOOD!

In 19th-century London, industrial breweries housed colossal vats of fermenting ale. At the Meux and Co Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, one such immense wooden vessel, 22 feet tall, held over 3,500 barrels of porter, a dark beer. On October 17, 1814, the immense pressure within caused an iron hoop to snap. An hour later, the vat catastrophically ruptured, unleashing a torrent of beer that burst open several other vats in a domino effect.

Over 320,000 gallons of porter surged forth, forming a 15-foot-high wave that crashed into the adjacent St. Giles Rookery, a densely populated slum. The deluge swept through narrow streets and inundated basements, which often served as homes. Tragically, eight people died, including a mother and daughter taking tea and several mourners at a wake for a two-year-old boy, all caught unawares. A pub wall even collapsed, trapping a teenage