DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70266#0374
332
KIRBY S WONDERFUL MUSEUM.
THE DREADFUL ACCIDENT AT
MEUX’S BREWHOUSE.
♦
On Monday night, October ]/, 1814, one of those acci-
dents which, fortunately for the inhabitants of the metro-
polis, is of rare occurrence, threw the neighbourhood of St.
Giles’s into the utmost consternation. About six o’clock,
one of the vats, in the extensive premises of Messrs. Henry
Meux and Co. in Banbury-street, St. Giles’s, burst; and in
a moment, New-street, George-street, and several others in
the vicinity, were deluged with the contents, amounting to
3555 barrels of strong beer. The fluid, in its course, swept
every thing before it. Two houses in New-street, adjoin-
ing to the brewhouse, were totally demolished. The inha-
tants, who were of the poorer class, were all at home. In
the first floor of one of them, a mother and daughter were
at tea; the mother was washed out of the window, and the
daughter was swept away by the current, through a parti-
tion, and dashed to pieces. The back parts of the houses
of Mr. Goodwin, poulterer, of Mr. Hawes, Tavistock Arms,
and Nos. 24 and 25, Great Russell-street, were nearly de-
stroyed. The female servant of the Tavistock Arms was
suffocated. Three of Air. Meux’s men, employed in the
brewery, were rescued with great difficulty. The site of the
place is low and fiat, and there being no declivity to carry
off the fluid in its fall, it spread and sunk into the neigh-
bouring cellars, all of which were inhabited. Even the cel-
lars in Russell-street were inundated; and breaches made
through the houses. The inhabitants, to save themselves
from drowning, had to mount their highest pieces of fur-
niture. The bursting of the brewhouse walls, and the fall
of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the
mischief, by forcing the roofs, and walls of the adjoining
houses.—It was feared at first, that the lives lost exceeded
KIRBY S WONDERFUL MUSEUM.
THE DREADFUL ACCIDENT AT
MEUX’S BREWHOUSE.
♦
On Monday night, October ]/, 1814, one of those acci-
dents which, fortunately for the inhabitants of the metro-
polis, is of rare occurrence, threw the neighbourhood of St.
Giles’s into the utmost consternation. About six o’clock,
one of the vats, in the extensive premises of Messrs. Henry
Meux and Co. in Banbury-street, St. Giles’s, burst; and in
a moment, New-street, George-street, and several others in
the vicinity, were deluged with the contents, amounting to
3555 barrels of strong beer. The fluid, in its course, swept
every thing before it. Two houses in New-street, adjoin-
ing to the brewhouse, were totally demolished. The inha-
tants, who were of the poorer class, were all at home. In
the first floor of one of them, a mother and daughter were
at tea; the mother was washed out of the window, and the
daughter was swept away by the current, through a parti-
tion, and dashed to pieces. The back parts of the houses
of Mr. Goodwin, poulterer, of Mr. Hawes, Tavistock Arms,
and Nos. 24 and 25, Great Russell-street, were nearly de-
stroyed. The female servant of the Tavistock Arms was
suffocated. Three of Air. Meux’s men, employed in the
brewery, were rescued with great difficulty. The site of the
place is low and fiat, and there being no declivity to carry
off the fluid in its fall, it spread and sunk into the neigh-
bouring cellars, all of which were inhabited. Even the cel-
lars in Russell-street were inundated; and breaches made
through the houses. The inhabitants, to save themselves
from drowning, had to mount their highest pieces of fur-
niture. The bursting of the brewhouse walls, and the fall
of heavy timber, materially contributed to aggravate the
mischief, by forcing the roofs, and walls of the adjoining
houses.—It was feared at first, that the lives lost exceeded