6. The London Beer Flood
On October 1814, huge vats of beer operated by Meux and Company Brewery burst and nearly 1.5 million liters of beer gushed into the streets of London. The bizarre wave crumbled the wall of a pub and destroyed two nearby homes. The brewery was located in St. Giles Rookery, a low-income area filled with poor tenements and houses, where many families lived in basements. The freak accident caused eight people killed by drowning in beer.
The jury and judge ruled that the disaster was an Act of God, leaving no one held responsible. Unfortunately, the brewery couldn’t cope with the loss of such large amount of beer. The financial implication was made worse by the fact the company already paid the duty for the spilled beer. The company was closed after the First World War and on its location today, sits the Dominion Theatre,