Black Cab Story

By Alf Townsend

In his new book, well-known London cabbie Alf Townsend tells us the complete story of the black cab, from its origins in the seventeenth century to the brand new taxis which now grace the capital’s streets.The history and development of the black cab is explored here in Alf’s straightforward writing style, alongside ninety colour and black and white images.This is a light-hearted romp through the world of ‘the knowledge’, the vehicles, the streets of London and the cabbies themselves, and is full of juicy snippets and fascinating quotes which will be of great interest to anyone who loves this London icon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9780752484846

Alf Townsend

The late Alf Townsend was born in London in the 1930s. He was a London cabbie for 42 years and published many books about his life experiences, including The London Cabbie and Blitz Boy.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

The whole concept of hailing a taxi in London is unique. Firstly, the 24,000-plus purpose-built vehicles are tough, sturdy, safe and have to comply with the stringent ‘Conditions of Fitness’ laid down by the trade’s regulatory body, the Public Carriage Office (PCO). If these stringent ‘Conditions of Fitness’ were ever watered-down then the iconic London taxi would become extinct – undercut by cheaper people-carriers.

The floor level of the passenger compartment must not be more than 15in above ground level when the vehicle is unladen so that the punters can easily get in and out. Every cab must be wheelchair accessible and every London taxi needs to have a thorough overhaul every year before its Hackney Carriage Plate is renewed – and I mean VERY thorough! The cabbies need to keep their vehicles immaculate at all times because teams of Carriage Office Inspectors prowl the London streets day and night looking for tatty cabs. These unfortunate cabs are given ‘Stop-Notes’ and can, and often do, cost the driver lots of dough, because the vehicle is put up on a ramp and checked over with a fine-tooth comb!

Did you know?

The London taxi must have a turning circle of 25ft so it can U-turn off a central rank.

Secondly we come to the 22,000-plus drivers, the world-famous London cabbies. Love them or hate them, nobody can dispute their professionalism and knowledge of the capital. Becoming a London taxi driver is tantamount to committing oneself to a three-year course at university – maybe not the academic side but certainly the work input. Every would-be cabbie has to sign on at the PCO – with no outstanding criminal convictions – and endure what is colloquially known as ‘The Knowledge’.

Did you know?

The reason why London taxis are so high is so that the ‘toffs’ didn’t have to remove their tops hats!

This entails riding around London on a moped for around three years and basically learning every one of the 25,000 streets within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross. But it doesn’t end there. You need to remember thousands of ‘points’ such as hospitals, clubs, theatres, hotels, restaurants, railway stations and churches. In fact you need to remember just about every destination a punter may require – even ‘knocking-shops’!

The Knowledge Boy or Girl is given what is known as the ‘Blue Book’ when he or she signs on. This is in fact a white book containing a list of some 400 routes or ‘runs’ that criss-cross all over London; why it’s called the Blue Book nobody knows! After learning the Blue Book inside out, the candidate will then book an ‘appearance’ at the Public Carriage Office for a fifteen-minute oral test. This is crunch time in front of a merciless examiner who will deliberately switch the start and finish of each run, to ensure that the pupil hasn’t been sitting at home on their backside simply map-reading! And God help you if he twigs that you have been map reading and not braving the elements out in the freezing cold on your moped. Back in my day one of the so-called shrewd-nuts proceeded to call a ‘run’ and turned right off Holborn Viaduct into Farringdon Street – a drop of around 50ft. He was promptly slung off the course and told not to return!

Committing yourself to the Knowledge is a long and tiring process of elimination and the