Hackney Carriages.

London Hackney Carriages….

The old Music Hall joke went something like this: "Call me a Taxi, my good man". Reply: "Certainly sir, you are a Taxi". Well that is what a Hackney Carriage is in fact. A common or garden taxi, also known in London as a Black Cab – although nowadays they come in all colours. They had to be black by law for most of their existence.

When I was in Police College, several of the Instructors had a ‘thing’ about black cabs. They hated them and insisted that we also learn to hate them. They called them ‘Black Scabs’ and told us to ‘stick them in the book’ at every opportunity.

Personally I found them all to be really nice people and never had any trouble with any cab drivers during my service. They would always come to your assistance if you were on your own and even give you a lift with a ‘clean’ prisoner to the station – free of charge. On many occasions when waiting for a bus to go to work, especially on days when buses were few and far between, a cab would stop and give me a free lift to the station. A good lot of lads they are and I wonder to this day how they upset the instructors.

Many of my golfing friends are cab drivers, as the hours that most of them work tend to leave them free in the mornings.

They are still known all over England as ‘hackney carriages’ and all the laws relating to them also refer to them as such. They are highly regulated in the Greater London Area by the ‘Public Carriage Office’ where the drivers are obliged to sit a stiff examination about routes and destinations throughout London. Learners can be spotted all over London, usually on small motor cycles, with large clipboards attached to the handlebars learning such routes. It is known as ‘Doing the Knowledge’ and some of the slower learners take years to pass the test.

Their cabs have to be registered and ‘plated’. Each cab has a number issued by the Public Carriage Office and each driver has a ‘Cab Drivers Badge’ which must be worn while working and indeed when attending Court. I have in fact seen Cab Drivers whilst giving evidence not wearing their badge and being fined on the spot by the Magistrate. Those licensed to ply for hire in the Inner London Area have Green badges whilst those only permitted to work in the Outer areas have Yellow ones.

The name ‘Hackney’ as in ‘carriage’ is supposed to have come from a Norman French name ‘de Haquenee’ who were involved in the trade centuries ago when they developed a four-wheeled horse drawn carriage which carried six passengers through the then narrow streets of London.

The term appears to have travelled to the New World as a taxi or taxi driver in New York is known as a ‘hack’ who requires a ‘hack license’ and parks his taxi on a ‘hackstand’.

There are currently 21,000 licensed cabs in London. Some of the models since 2003 have been purchased and operated in San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Las Vegas.

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Below are a few examples of London Cabs, old and new, one of the ‘Rest Rooms’ where some drivers can have a meal, and some horsedrawn cabs from other countries.