On this day in 1814, the perils of drink would show themselves in an unexpected but deadly way with the London Beer Flood, writes Eliot Wilson

At the beginning of the 19th century, beer was Britain’s national drink. Around 35 gallons of it were consumed per capita each year – 300 pints for every man, woman and child – and it had seen off the challenge of the previous century’s gin craze, especially after the Gin Act 1751 increased duties on the spirit and restricted its sale.

There were almost 30,000 breweries in Britain at that time, and London was dominated by two: Whitbread & Co Ltd on Chiswell Street in Islington, and Henry Meux & Co’s Horse Shoe Brewery at the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. The capital’s preferred beer was porter, a rich, dark, tart brew around six per cent ABV which added flavour to a bland diet and provided easily digested calories for men engaged in hard physical labour. And the two breweries were prodigious, Whitbread producing more than 200,000 barrels of porter a year and the Horse Shoe Brewery 105,000.

Even 200 years ago it was known that alcohol had its dangers,........

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