A Flood Of Beer

As I am approaching my 70th birthday, I did what many people do periodically, I looked to see what other momentous events occurred on the day of my birth, 17th October. The records on-line are always incomplete because the degree of detail depends on who put the list together - plus the amount of data increases as we get nearer to the present day.

I found that the Battle of Neville's Cross took place on 17th October of 1346 near Durham and the Scottish king, David II, was defeated by English forces that were smaller in number but better organised. The King was captured and taken to face King Edward III of England, who was, at that time, involved in resurrecting the Hundred Years War in France. They met at Calais and Edward instructed that David be taken back to England and imprisoned in Odiham Castle in Hampshire - where he stayed for 11 years.

Also on 17th October 1660, after the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England, the nine men who had signed the death warrant of King Charles I were arrested and ultimately taken away to be hung, drawn and quartered.

But I will put aside all stories of kings and prime ministers and concentrate on real stories. On 17th October 1814 in the Parish of St Giles in London, on the Tottenham Court Road there was a catastrophe of almost unimaginable horror. At the brewery of Meux & Co., a large vat containing beer ruptured and beer came gushing forth. The collapse of this huge tank caused damage to adjacent vessels which also ruptured and a total of 323,000 gallons of beer poured out into the streets. The area around St Giles was a notorious slum with masses of people crowded into tumbledown buildings and cellars. The beer washed away some of the buildings and poured down into the cellars where many were trapped. There were eight people drowned in this flood of beer and many others were injured as they tried to escape. One of the walls of the nearby Tavistock Arms was washed away and the collapsing pub trapped teenage employee Eleanor Cooper under the rubble. The brewery were taken to court over the incident but no one was found to be responsible for what, it was decided, was an Act of God; they obviously had no H&S executive in those days. The brewery's loss was considerable, of course, and what was the worst for them was that they had already paid duty on the beer. Ultimately, they managed to get their money back and this allowed them to recover from their losses. The brewery survived until the early years of the 20th century.

These catalogues of dates often give more clues about the compilers than they properly give a true picture of history. The one I have been looking at has American origins so once we pass the mid 17th century it becomes more and more Americo-centric. Why do we need to know that on 17th October 1831 Felix Mendelssohn's 1st Piano Concerto received its world premiere? It seems that nothing at all happened to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert on 17th October. There is no mention of the premiere of Schubert's 5th Symphony on 17th October 1841 - 13 years after the composer's death. A more important event, I would have thought, than a minor work of Mendelssohn.

I will examine some more happenings in the coming weeks - if anything interests me.

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