Life in the metropolis can be grievous , but one way you do n’t expect to croak on the streets of London is by drowning , and least of all in beer . Yes , yes, , but this horrifying nightmare became reality on Monday October 17 , 1814 , when the city was literally glut withbeer .

The catastrophe begin at the Horse Shoe Brewery along Tottenham Court Road , one of the city ’s most famous spots in the modern era that was densely populate in the 19thcentury . It was home to a expectant towering vat of browned porter ale , a dark beer that ’s reportedly a umber - caramel visibility on the glossa , but emphatically less golden on the lung .

According toHistoric UK , the tugboat was 6.7 meters ( 22 foot ) high and control around 3,500 barrel of the beer , but this all changed on October 17 , 1814 , when one of the crucial iron rings holding it together snapped . The rupture find over 320,000 gallons of beer flood into the streets in a 4.6 - meter ( 15 - base ) wave that rip through the area .

Houses tumble and stead of work were flooded , including the Tavistock Arms Pub where a barmaid was killed . In total , eight citizenry are say to have snuff it from the immediate aftermath of the beer rising tide , but a 9th reportedly conk day later from alcohol poisoning .

When front with streets pave with beer , hundreds begin scooping and guzzle to rescue what was provide , in a spirit of spillage is lickage that would make any uni pupil proud . Even once the beer was hold up it could n’t be forgotten , as the smell of such a dark beer lingered on for month after the accident .

Despite the very earthly source of the beer tsunami , the accident was rule an “ Act Of God ” when the brewery was later taken to royal court . They were therefore free of blame in the eyes of the jurisprudence , but it still be them the modernistic equivalent of £ 1.25 million in damage , which at the metre was a measly £ 23,000 . Do n’t you just love splashiness ?

In the backwash of the catastrophe , some of the survivor put their at peace loved I on display to try and farm funds – an action that proved so popular one exposition was plunged into a beer - filled cellar after the floor collapsed from so much footfall . It might seem unusual in modern - day society , but such morbid exhibits used to be all the rage . In Paris , crowds would gather to see famous grimace like “ charwoman dilute into two pieces ” atLe Musée de la Mort , where body go on display just behind the Notre - Dame Cathedral .

Everything is substance , I opine .