{"id":78178,"date":"2014-10-17T17:23:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T21:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=78178"},"modified":"2014-10-17T18:26:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T22:26:05","slug":"too-much-of-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Much of a Good Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_78180\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-78180\" class=\"wp-image-78180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\" alt=\"Lager_Bier_(LOC_pga.02166)\" width=\"600\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166-300x185.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-78180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An ad by Mensing &amp; Stecher, ca. 1870.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fact: two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know what else to say.<\/p>\n<p>I guess I can tell you a little about it: how it began at the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, where an enormous vat ruptured, unleashing more than a hundred thousand imperial gallons of beer; how the force of that gushing beer apparently caused the brewery\u2019s other vats to rupture, thus sending some 1,470,000 liters of beer into the streets; and how that beer washed through a nearby home, killing a mother and daughter as they took tea. The <em>Times<\/em> reported that \u201cinhabitants had to save themselves from drowning by mounting their highest pieces of furniture.\u201d And the story goes that that the beer deluged right through a living room where a wake was in progress, killing a few mourners with intoxicating irony.<\/p>\n<p>When I learned of the flood, my first question wasn\u2019t \u201cHow many people died?\u201d It was \u201cWhat kind of beer was it?\u201d And according to no less reputable a source than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.funlondontours.com\/news\/london-beer-flood-1814\" target=\"_blank\">FunLondonTours.com<\/a>, the answer is porter. Porters tend to be pretty strong, so anyone who managed to gulp down a few mouthfuls as he or she was enveloped by the beer wave \u2026 well, you can see where I\u2019m going with this.<\/p>\n<p>For more on the flood, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/places\/site-london-beer-flood\" target=\"_blank\">Atlas Obscura<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fact: two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer. I don\u2019t know what else to say. I guess I can tell you a little about it: how it began at the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, where an enormous vat ruptured, unleashing more than a hundred thousand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7555],"tags":[12528,15694,2587,13429,2861,1050,13084],"class_list":["post-78178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-history","tag-accidents","tag-anomalies","tag-beer","tag-floods","tag-history","tag-london","tag-wtf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Too Much of a Good Thing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Too Much of a Good Thing by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 17, 2014 \u2013 Fact: two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer. I don\u2019t know what else to say. I guess I can tell you a little about it:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"Too Much of a Good Thing\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Accidents\",\"anomalies\",\"beer\",\"floods\",\"history\",\"London\",\"wtf\"],\"articleSection\":[\"On History\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\",\"name\":\"Too Much of a Good Thing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Too Much of a Good Thing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\",\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Piepenbring\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Too Much of a Good Thing","description":"Two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Too Much of a Good Thing by Dan Piepenbring","og_description":"October 17, 2014 \u2013 Fact: two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer. I don\u2019t know what else to say. I guess I can tell you a little about it:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":617,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dan Piepenbring","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Piepenbring","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan Piepenbring","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8"},"headline":"Too Much of a Good Thing","datePublished":"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/"},"wordCount":251,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg","keywords":["Accidents","anomalies","beer","floods","history","London","wtf"],"articleSection":["On History"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/","name":"Too Much of a Good Thing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-17T21:23:35+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-17T22:26:05+00:00","description":"Two hundred years ago today, eight Londoners drowned in a flood of beer.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/lager_bier_loc_pga.02166.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/too-much-of-a-good-thing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Too Much of a Good Thing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8","name":"Dan Piepenbring","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Piepenbring"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78178"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78195,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78178\/revisions\/78195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}