4 ms·

London Beer Flood of 1814

91 points by zeristor 5y ago

zeristor 5y ago
Reposted as requested from ages, and ages ago.
rmason 5y ago
My late father told me the story of how he was coming home from school in Detroit during prohibition. Agents had just busted a warehouse full of kegs of beer. As was the practice at the time they'd use an axe to chop into the barrel to empty the contents. He said the entire street was a river full of beer!
zeristor 5y ago
Since I posted this originally some time back a few YouTube videos have been made about it, this one being quite good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPoX5nnknUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPoX5nnknUY
emerged 5y ago
Hard to imagine mourning the death of a 2 year old and a wave of beer kills 5 of your fellow mourners. How do you not lose your mind at that point.
- w0de0 5y ago
  Indeed, the tale took a grim turn with this detail. I had hoped for some good clean macabre irony when I saw “Irish” in a coming sentence. Luckily, “See Also” has a link to Dublin Whiskey Flood - 13 fatalities - all alcohol poisoning!
everyone 5y ago
Reminded me of this ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_whiskey_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_whiskey_fire
- monkeybutton 5y ago
  13 fatalities, all due to alcohol poisoning rather than the fire. Wow!
ajb 5y ago
Another similar event happened with molasses: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
- arcticbull 5y ago
  Yup the Boston Molassacre
tomcam 5y ago
Even less fun was the quite horrible Molasses Flood in Boston, 1919. A couple of dozen people died in a spectacularly gruesome way. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29679863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29679863
- dustintrex 5y ago
  The Onion's version: https://www.theonion.com/pudding-factory-disaster-brings-slow-creamy-death-to-t-1819565362 https://www.theonion.com/pudding-factory-disaster-brings-slo...
  - arcticbull 5y ago
    I enjoyed the Cracked article from way, way back when. (#5 at [1]). > Eventually the rivets shot out of the tank, unleashing a 15-foot tall tidal wave that covered Boston, providing residents with a valuable look at what a melted Stay-Puft would have really done to New York at the end of Ghostbusters. [1] https://www.cracked.com/article_141_6-natural-disasters-that-were-caused-by-human-stupidity.html https://www.cracked.com/article_141_6-natural-disasters-that...
- quantified 5y ago
  If you’re going for a tour of the USS Constitution, the site is nearby.
- httpz 5y ago
  "wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150" I didn't know can move that fast. That's faster than Usain Bolt's peak speed.
codezero 5y ago
Is love to see a computer simulation of how this played out.
xbpx 5y ago
"As the coroner's inquest reached a verdict of an act of God, Meux & Co did not have to pay compensation." The good ol days, sometimes a lot like these current days... Yes we're all looking at you Sacklers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family "The bankruptcy judge acknowledged that the Sacklers had moved money to offshore accounts to protect it from claims, and he said he wished the settlement had been higher." Wished... Indeed... Only an act of God could have stopped them surely.
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  That settlement got thrown out the other day. https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1065047471/judge-rejects-purdue-pharmas-opioid-settlement-that-would-protect-the-sackler-fa https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1065047471/judge-rejects-purd...
  - xbpx 5y ago
    This looks promising
    - mormegil 5y ago
      > Instead of paying billions of dollars to opioid victims and states, Purdue will stay in limbo and pay hundreds of millions of dollars to lawyers. > [...] > The problem is ... well, one problem is that fairness is sometimes the enemy of pragmatism; letting the Sacklers keep billions and avoid litigation might be the only way to get them to pay billions https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/the-purdue-bankruptcy-didn-t-work https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/the-pu...
      - ljm 5y ago
        That quote sounds like the opinion of someone who wants to be bought off, rather than someone who wants the same kind of accountability that the rest of us are expected to have.
pksebben 5y ago
These are mentioned piecemeal in other comments, but this refers to four other similar incidents, all with varying levels of goofy horror: - Dublin whiskey fire - Great Molasses Flood - Honolulu molasses spill - Pepsi Fruit Juice Flood
Theodores 5y ago
If you have ever been to London you will know the vicinity of the incident and appreciate how much the city has changed. It was at the end of Oxford Street where it meets Tottenham Court Road. Considerable investment in the Thameslink underground station has gone on there recently. There is also the Centrepoint Tower. The streetscape is a world away from having breweries with product left to mature for a year in vast vats. Also having slums. If you had one of those original slum houses in that spot today, you could sell it and never work again. In this story there is good and bad in terms of how our inner cities have changed. Actual industry in the city centre is quaint but I imagine the air quality - that area is nowadays some of the worst in the UK - was no better.
- zeristor 5y ago
  Diagonally across from there was the old Cross & Blackwell factory, they found jars when prepping for Crossrail. I’ve tracked my ancestors to living in the Denmark Street Rookery in the 1880s, history becomes more vivid when you have skin in the game.

91 points by zeristor 5y ago

Reposted as requested from ages, and ages ago.

My late father told me the story of how he was coming home from school in Detroit during prohibition. Agents had just busted a warehouse full of kegs of beer. As was the practice at the time they'd use an axe to chop into the barrel to empty the contents. He said the entire street was a river full of beer!

zeristor 5y ago

Since I posted this originally some time back a few YouTube videos have been made about it, this one being quite good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPoX5nnknUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPoX5nnknUY

emerged 5y ago

Hard to imagine mourning the death of a 2 year old and a wave of beer kills 5 of your fellow mourners. How do you not lose your mind at that point.

w0de0 5y ago
Indeed, the tale took a grim turn with this detail. I had hoped for some good clean macabre irony when I saw “Irish” in a coming sentence. Luckily, “See Also” has a link to Dublin Whiskey Flood - 13 fatalities - all alcohol poisoning!

everyone 5y ago

Reminded me of this ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_whiskey_fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_whiskey_fire

monkeybutton 5y ago
13 fatalities, all due to alcohol poisoning rather than the fire. Wow!

ajb 5y ago

Another similar event happened with molasses: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood

arcticbull 5y ago
Yup the Boston Molassacre

tomcam 5y ago

Even less fun was the quite horrible Molasses Flood in Boston, 1919. A couple of dozen people died in a spectacularly gruesome way. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29679863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29679863

dustintrex 5y ago
The Onion's version: https://www.theonion.com/pudding-factory-disaster-brings-slow-creamy-death-to-t-1819565362 https://www.theonion.com/pudding-factory-disaster-brings-slo...
- arcticbull 5y ago
  I enjoyed the Cracked article from way, way back when. (#5 at [1]). > Eventually the rivets shot out of the tank, unleashing a 15-foot tall tidal wave that covered Boston, providing residents with a valuable look at what a melted Stay-Puft would have really done to New York at the end of Ghostbusters. [1] https://www.cracked.com/article_141_6-natural-disasters-that-were-caused-by-human-stupidity.html https://www.cracked.com/article_141_6-natural-disasters-that...
quantified 5y ago
If you’re going for a tour of the USS Constitution, the site is nearby.
httpz 5y ago
"wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150" I didn't know can move that fast. That's faster than Usain Bolt's peak speed.

codezero 5y ago

Is love to see a computer simulation of how this played out.

xbpx 5y ago

"As the coroner's inquest reached a verdict of an act of God, Meux & Co did not have to pay compensation." The good ol days, sometimes a lot like these current days... Yes we're all looking at you Sacklers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family "The bankruptcy judge acknowledged that the Sacklers had moved money to offshore accounts to protect it from claims, and he said he wished the settlement had been higher." Wished... Indeed... Only an act of God could have stopped them surely.

bobthepanda 5y ago
That settlement got thrown out the other day. https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1065047471/judge-rejects-purdue-pharmas-opioid-settlement-that-would-protect-the-sackler-fa https://www.npr.org/2021/12/16/1065047471/judge-rejects-purd...
- xbpx 5y ago
  This looks promising
  - mormegil 5y ago
    > Instead of paying billions of dollars to opioid victims and states, Purdue will stay in limbo and pay hundreds of millions of dollars to lawyers. > [...] > The problem is ... well, one problem is that fairness is sometimes the enemy of pragmatism; letting the Sacklers keep billions and avoid litigation might be the only way to get them to pay billions https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/the-purdue-bankruptcy-didn-t-work https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-23/the-pu...
    - ljm 5y ago
      That quote sounds like the opinion of someone who wants to be bought off, rather than someone who wants the same kind of accountability that the rest of us are expected to have.

pksebben 5y ago

These are mentioned piecemeal in other comments, but this refers to four other similar incidents, all with varying levels of goofy horror: - Dublin whiskey fire - Great Molasses Flood - Honolulu molasses spill - Pepsi Fruit Juice Flood

Theodores 5y ago

If you have ever been to London you will know the vicinity of the incident and appreciate how much the city has changed. It was at the end of Oxford Street where it meets Tottenham Court Road. Considerable investment in the Thameslink underground station has gone on there recently. There is also the Centrepoint Tower. The streetscape is a world away from having breweries with product left to mature for a year in vast vats. Also having slums. If you had one of those original slum houses in that spot today, you could sell it and never work again. In this story there is good and bad in terms of how our inner cities have changed. Actual industry in the city centre is quaint but I imagine the air quality - that area is nowadays some of the worst in the UK - was no better.

zeristor 5y ago
Diagonally across from there was the old Cross & Blackwell factory, they found jars when prepping for Crossrail. I’ve tracked my ancestors to living in the Denmark Street Rookery in the 1880s, history becomes more vivid when you have skin in the game.