
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn
carriage
A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
designed and patented in 1834 by
Joseph Hansom, an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
from
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in
Hinckley,
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.
Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by
John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.
''Cab'' is a shortening of ''
cabriolet'', reflecting the design of the carriage. It replaced the
hackney carriage as a
vehicle for hire; with the introduction of clockwork mechanical
taximeter
A taximeter or fare meter is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs and auto rickshaws that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance travelled and waiting time. Its shortened form, "taxi", is also a meton ...
s to measure fares, the name became ''
taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
''.
Hansom cabs enjoyed immense popularity as they were fast, light enough to be pulled by a single horse (making the journey cheaper than travelling in a larger four-wheel coach) and were agile enough to steer around
horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a piece of equipment pulled by one or more horses. These vehicles typically have two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have mostly been replaced by auto ...
s in the notorious traffic jams of nineteenth-century London. There were up to 7500 hansom cabs in use at the height of their popularity and they quickly spread to other cities in the United Kingdom (including Ireland), as well as continental European cities, particularly
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, and
St Petersburg. The cab was introduced to other British Empire cities and to the United States during the late 19th century, being most commonly used in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Design
The cab, a type of ''
fly'', sat two passengers (three if they squeezed in) and a driver who sat on a sprung seat behind the vehicle. The passengers could give their instructions to the driver through a
trap door near the rear of the roof. They could pay the driver through the hatch, and he would then operate a lever to release the doors so that they could alight. In some cabs, the driver could operate a device that balanced the cab and reduced strain on the horse. The passengers were protected from the elements by the cab and by folding wooden doors that enclosed their feet and legs and thus protected their clothes from splashing mud. Later versions also had an up-and-over glass window above the doors to complete the enclosure of the passengers. Additionally, a curved
fender mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the hooves of the horse.
Other vehicles similar to the Hansom cab include the American light trade cart for deliveries such as bread, the bow-fronted hansom which was fully enclosed and entered through a side door, and the Brougham Hansom which was entered from the rear and driven from a seat on the fore-part of the roof.
United Kingdom

Two
English peers who owned cab companies,
Lord Shrewsbury and
Lord Lonsdale, raised the standards of all Hansom cabs in London when they purchased upgraded cabs made by Forder, complete with brass fittings, quiet-running rubber tires, and luxuriously fitted interiors. Their horses were thoroughbreds in polished harnesses. These flashier Hansoms were sometimes referred to as "Gondolas of London" or "gondolas of the streets".
The cabs were widely used in the United Kingdom until 1908 when
Taximeter
A taximeter or fare meter is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs and auto rickshaws that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance travelled and waiting time. Its shortened form, "taxi", is also a meton ...
Cars (petrol cabs) started to be introduced and were rapidly accepted; by the early 1920s horse-drawn cabs had largely been superseded by motor vehicles. The last licence for a horse-drawn cab in London was relinquished in 1947.
United States
The Hansom Cab Company, NYC

The Hansom Cab Company was established in May 1869 to provide transportation in New York City and Brooklyn. The business was located at 133 Water Street, Brooklyn;
Duncan, Sherman & Company handled the books of subscription (initial offers of stock to capitalize a new company). The enterprise was organized by Ed W. Brandon who became its president. Two orders for a fleet of cabs were sent to carriage makers in New York City. Fares were to be charged either by distance or time: $0.30 for a single person per mile, or portion thereof, and $0.40 for two people. By time, $0.75 for one person for an hour or portion thereof, $1.00 for two persons.
Museums
A restored hansom cab once owned by
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt is on display at the
Remington Carriage Museum in
Cardston, Alberta, Canada. There is another surviving example, owned and operated by the
Sherlock Holmes Museum in London; in common with other horse-drawn vehicles it is not permitted to enter any of the
Royal Parks. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Leicestershire also have a restored Hansom cab. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, has a hansom cab, made by D.P. Nichols of New York, (circa 1900) in its collections.
In popular culture

* In ''
Black Beauty'' by
Anna Sewell, the central section has an evocative account of life as a Hansom cab driver in Victorian London, even though it is written from the point of view of the horse.
* "
The Adventure of the Hansom Cab" is the third and final story in
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
's ''
The Suicide Club'' cycle (1878). Retired British soldier Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich is beckoned into the back of an elegantly appointed hansom by a mysterious cabman who whisks him off to a party.
* In 1886,
Fergus Hume published his novel ''
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab'', set in post-
Gold Rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...
era
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia. The story was filmed in Australia in 1911, under the same title. A movie was made for TV in 2012.
* The 1889 film ''
Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses'', photographed by
William Friese-Greene, shows Londoners walking along Apsley Gate,
Hyde Park, with horse-drawn conveyances passing by.
* The book ''Farewell Victoria'' (1933) by
T. H. White has the protagonist ending his days as a hansom cab operator in its fading years, which is part of the sustained metaphor brought out in the title.
See also
*
Cabmen's Shelter Fund
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
America on the Move , Hansom Cab.National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
*
Sherlock Peoria.
* Official website for Laurie R. King; features a cab-driving scene.
Joseph Aloysius Hansom(History of York)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansom Cab
Carriages
English inventions
Taxi vehicles
Vehicles introduced in 1834