The Knowledge

Taxis are regulated throughout the United Kingdom, but the regulation of taxicabs in London is especially rigorous with regard to mechanical integrity and driver knowledge. An official report observed that: "Little however is known about the regulation by anyone outside the trade.

A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common sight on the streets of London. The hackney carriages carry a roof sign TAXI that can be illuminated to indicate their availability for passengers.

History

The widespread use of private coaches by the English aristocracy began to be seen in the 1580s; within fifty years hackney coaches were regularly to be seen on the streets of London. In the 1620s there was a proliferation of coaches for hire in the metropolis, so much so that they were seen as a danger to pedestrians in the narrow streets of the city, and in 1635 an Order in Council was issued limiting the number allowed. Two years later a system for licensing hackney coachmen was established (overseen by the Master of the Horse).

In 1636 the number of carriages was set at 50, an early example of taxicab regulation. In the same year, the owner of four hackney carriages established the first taxicab stand in The Strand. After 1662 hackneys were regulated by the Commissioners of Scotland Yard. In the early 19th century '' cabriolets'' (''cabs'' for short) replaced the heavier and more cumbersome hackney carriages. Battery-operated taxis appeared briefly at the end of the 19th century, but the modern taxicab service took off with the appearance of petrol-powered taxis in 1903. In 1907 meters were first introduced to calculate the fare and were set at 8d (8 pence) for the first mile.

Today, taxicab service in London is regulated by Transport for London's strict Conditions of Fitness, mandating size, turning radius, age, and emissions, resulting in unique vehicles built primarily for the London market such as the LEVC and the Mercedes Vito seen today.

"An Ordinance for the Regulation of Hackney-Coachmen in London and the places adjacent" was approved by Parliament in 1654, to remedy what it described as the "many Inconveniences hatdo daily arise by reason of the late increase and great irregularity of Hackney Coaches and Hackney Coachmen in London, Westminster and the places thereabouts". The first hackney-carriage licences date from a 1662 act of Parliament, the London and Westminster Streets Act 1662 ( 14 Cha. 2. c. 2) establishing the Commissioners of Scotland Yard to regulate them. Licences applied literally to horse-drawn carriages, later modernised as hansom cabs (1834), that operated as vehicles for hire. The 1662 act limited the licences to 400; when it expired in 1679, extra licences were created until the ( 5 & 6 Will. & Mar. c. 22) imposed a limit of 700. The limit was increased to 800 in 1715, 1,000 in 1770 and 1,100 in 1802, before being abolished in 1832. The 1694 act established the Hackney Coach Commissioners to oversee the regulation of fares, licences and other matters; in 1831 their work was taken over by the Stamp Office and in 1869 responsibility for licensing was passed on to the Metropolitan Police. In the 18th and 19th centuries, private carriages were commonly sold off for use as hackney carriages, often displaying painted-over traces of the previous owner's coat of arms on the doors.

There was a distinction between a general hackney carriage and a hackney coach, which was specifically a hireable vehicle with four wheels, two horses and six seats: four on the inside for the passengers and two on the outside (one for a servant and the other for the driver, who was popularly termed the '' Jarvey'' (also spelled ''jarvie'')). For many years only coaches, to this specification, could be licensed for hire; but in 1814 the licensing of up to 200 hackney chariots was permitted, which carried a maximum of three passengers inside and one servant outside (such was the popularity of these new faster carriages that the number of licences was doubled the following year).

Shortly afterwards even lighter carriages began to be licensed: the two-wheel, single-horse cabriolets or 'cabs', which were licensed to carry no more than two passengers. Then, in 1834, the hansom cab was patented by Joseph Hansom: a jaunty single-horse, two-wheel carriage with a distinctive appearance, designed to carry passengers safely in an urban environment. The hansom cab quickly established itself as the standard two-wheel hackney carriage and remained in use into the 20th century.

In 1836 the Clarence was introduced to London's streets: a type of small four-wheel enclosed carriage drawn by one or two horses. These became known as 'growlers' because of the sound they made on the cobbled streets. Much slower than a hansom cab, they nevertheless had room for up to four passengers (plus one servant) and space on the roof for luggage. As such they remained in use as the standard form of four-wheeled hackney carriage until replaced by motorised taxi cabs in the early 20th century.

A small, usually two-wheeled, one-horse hackney vehicle called a ''noddy'' once plied the roads in Ireland and Scotland. The French had a small hackney coach called a '' fiacre''.

Motorisation

Electric hackney carriages appeared before the introduction of the internal combustion engine to vehicles for hire in 1897. In fact there was even London Electrical Cab Company: the cabs were informally called Berseys after the manager who designed them, Walter Bersey. Another nickname was Hummingbirds from the sound that they made. In August 1897, 25 were introduced, and by 1898, there were 50 more. During the early 20th century, cars generally replaced horse-drawn models. In 1910, the number of motor cabs on London streets outnumbered horse-drawn growlers and hansoms for the first time. At the time of the outbreak of World War I, the ratio was seven to one in favour of motorized cabs. The last horse-drawn hackney carriage ceased service in London in 1947.

UK regulations define a hackney carriage as a taxicab allowed to ply the streets looking for passengers to pick up, as opposed to private hire vehicles (sometimes called '' minicabs''), which may pick up only passengers who have previously booked or who visit the taxi operator's office. In 1999, the first of a series of fuel cell powered taxis were tried out in London. The "Millennium Cab" built by ZeTek gained television coverage and great interest when driven in the Sheraton Hotel ballroom in New York by Judd Hirsch, the star of the television series ''Taxi''. ZeTek built three cabs but ceased activities in 2001.

Continuing horse-drawn cab services

Horse-drawn hackney services continue to operate in parts of the UK, for example in Cockington, Torquay. The town of Windsor, Berkshire, is the last remaining UK town with a continuous lineage of horse-drawn hackney carriages, operated run by Windsor Carriages, the licence having been passed down from driver to driver since the 1830s. The original hackney licence is in place, allowing for passenger travel under the same law that was originally passed in 1662. The city of Bath has an occasional horse-drawn Hackney, principally for tourists, but still carrying hackney plates.

Black cabs

Though there has never been law requiring London's taxis to be black, they were, since the end of the Second World War, sold in a standard colour of black. This, in the 1970s gave rise within the minicab trade to the nickname 'black cab' and it has become common currency. However, before the Second World War, London's cabs were seen in a variety of colours. They are produced in a variety of colours, sometimes in advertising brand liveries (see below). Fifty golden cabs were produced for the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

Vehicle design

In Edwardian times, Renault and Unic, but also smaller players like Charron and Darracq were to be found. Fiat was also a presence, with their importer d'Arcy Baker running a fleet of 400 cars of the brand. In the 1920s, Beardmore cabs were introduced and became for a while the most popular. They were nicknamed 'the Rolls-Royce of cabs' for their comfort and robustness. Maxwell Monson introduced Citroën cabs, which were cheaper, but crude in comparison to the Beardmore. In 1930 dealers Mann and Overton struck a deal with the Austin to bring a modified version of the Austin 12/4 car to the London taxi market. This established Austin as dominant until the end of the 1970s and Mann and Overton until 2012. The Austin FX4, launched in 1958, which stayed in production until 1997 under successive manufacturers is perhaps the most iconic and recognised of all hackney carriages and set the basic styling parameters of its successors.

Morrises cabs were also seen, in small numbers, but after the Second World War, produced the Oxford, made by Wolseleys.

Outside of London, the regulations governing the hackney cab trade are different. Four-door saloon cars have been highly popular as hackney carriages, but with disability regulations growing in strength and some councils offering free licensing for disabled-friendly vehicles, many operators are now opting for wheelchair-adapted taxis such as the LEVC TX of London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC). London taxis have broad rear doors that open very wide (or slide), and an electrically controlled ramp that is extended for access.

Other models of specialist taxis include the Peugeot E7 and rivals from Fiat, Ford, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz. These vehicles normally allow six or seven passengers, although some models can accommodate eight. Some of these minibus taxis include a front passenger seat next to the driver, while others reserve this space solely for luggage.

London taxis must have a turning circle not greater than . One reason for this is the configuration of the famed Savoy Hotel: the hotel entrance's small roundabout meant that vehicles needed the small turning circle to navigate it. That requirement became the legally required turning circles for all London cabs, while the custom of a passenger's sitting on the right, behind the driver, provided a reason for the right-hand traffic in Savoy Court, allowing hotel patrons to board and alight from the driver's side.

The design standards for London taxis are set out in the '' Conditions of Fitness'', which are now published by Transport for London. The first edition was published in May 1906, by the Public Carriage Office, which was then part of the Metropolitan Police. These regulations set out the conditions under which a taxi may operate and have been updated over the years to keep pace with motor car development and legislation. Changes include regulating the taximeter (made compulsory in 1907), advertisements and the turning circle of . Until the beginning of the 1980s, London Taxis were not allowed to carry any advertisements.

The London Taxis fleet has been fully accessible since 1 January 2000, following the introduction of the first accessible taxi in 1987. On 14 December 2010, Mayor of London Boris Johnson released an air quality strategy paper encouraging phasing out of the oldest of the LT cabs, and proposing a £1m fund to encourage taxi owners to upgrade to low-emission vehicles. Since 2018, all newly registered taxis in London must be zero emission, and more than half of the 14,700 fleet is zero emission capable.

As part of the Transported by Design programme of activities, on 15 October 2015, after two months of public voting, the black cab was elected by Londoners as their favourite transport design icon.

In 2017, the LEVC TX was introduced – a purpose-built hackney carriage, built as a plug-in hybrid range-extender electric vehicle. By April 2022, over 5,000 TX's had been sold in London, around a third of London's taxi fleet. In October 2019 the first fully electric cab since the Bersey in 1897, the Dynamo Taxi, was launched with a 187-mile range and with the bodywork based on Nissan's NV200 platform.

Driver qualification

In London, hackney-carriage drivers have to pass a test called The Knowledge to demonstrate that they have an intimate knowledge of the geography of London streets, important buildings, etc. Learning The Knowledge allows the driver to become a member of the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers. There are two types of badge, a yellow one for the suburban areas and a green one for all of London. The latter is considered far more difficult. Drivers who own their cabs as opposed to renting from a garage are known as "mushers" and those who have just passed the "knowledge" are known as "butter boys". As of 2023 there are around 15,100 black cabs in London, licensed by the Public Carriage Office.

Elsewhere, councils have their own regulations. Some merely require a driver to pass a DBS disclosure and have a reasonably clean driving licence, while others use their own local versions of London's The Knowledge test.

Notable drivers

* Alfred Collins, who retired in 2007 at the age of 92, was the oldest cab driver and had been driving for 70 years.
* Fred Housego is a former London taxi driver who became a television and radio personality and presenter after winning the BBC television quiz ''Mastermind'' in 1980.
* Clive Efford, Labour MP for the London constituency of Eltham, was a cab driver for 10 years before entering parliament in 1997.

Private users

Oil millionaire Nubar Gulbenkian owned an Austin FX3 Brougham Sedanca taxi, with custom coachwork by FLM Panelcraft Ltd as he was quoted "because it turns on a sixpence whatever that is." Gulbenkian had two such taxis built, the second of which was built on an FX4 chassis and was sold at auction by Bonhams for $39,600 in 2015. Other celebrities are known to have used hackney carriages both for their anonymity and their ruggedness and manoeuvrability in London traffic. Users included Prince Philip, whose cab was converted to run on liquefied petroleum gas, author and actor Stephen Fry, and the Sheriffs of the City of London. A black cab was used in the band Oasis's video for the song "Don't Look Back in Anger." Black cabs were used as recording studios for indie band performances and other performances in the Black Cab Sessions internet project.

'' Ghosthunting With...'' featured a black cab owned by host of the show, Yvette Fielding. Bez of the Happy Mondays owns one, shown on the UK edition of ''Pimp My Ride''. Noel Edmonds used a black cab to commute from his home to the ''Deal or No Deal'' studios in Bristol. He placed a dressed mannequin in the back so that he could use special bus/taxi lanes, and so that people would not attempt to hail his cab.

The official car of the Governor of the Falkland Islands between 1976 and 2010 was a London taxi.

The Knowledge of London

The London taxicab driver is required to be able to decide routes immediately in response to a passenger's request or traffic conditions, rather than stopping to look at a map, relying on satellite navigation or asking a controller by radio. Consequently, the "Knowledge of London" is the in-depth study of a number of pre-set London street routes and all places of interest that taxicab drivers in that city must complete to obtain a licence to operate a black cab. It was initiated in 1865, and has changed little since.

It is the world's most demanding training course for taxicab drivers, and applicants will usually need to pass at least twelve "appearances" (periodical one-on-one oral examinations undertaken throughout the qualification process), with the whole process averaging 34 months (almost 3 years) to pass.

Course details

Three hundred and twenty standard routes through central London, or "runs", are defined in the ''Guide to Learning the Knowledge of London'', which is produced by the Public Carriage Office. In all, some 25,000 streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross are covered, along with the major arterial routes through the rest of London.

A taxicab-driver must learn these routes, as well as the " points of interest" along and within of each end of those routes including streets, squares, clubs, hospitals, hotels, theatres, embassies, government and public buildings, railway stations, police stations, courts, diplomatic buildings, important places of worship, cemeteries, crematoria, parks and open spaces, sports and leisure centres, places of learning, restaurants and historic buildings.

The Knowledge includes details such as the order of theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, and the names and order of the side streets and traffic signals passed on a route.

There are a number of Knowledge Schools that provide books, maps and classroom tuition which help Knowledge students to learn the 320 runs and points of interest. There are separate, shorter courses for suburban London, with 30 to 50 runs, depending on the sector.

"Knowledge boys/girls"

During training, would-be cabbies, known as ''Knowledge boys'' or ''Knowledge girls'', usually follow these routes around London on a motor scooter, and can be identified by the clipboard fixed to the handlebars and showing details of the streets to be learned that day.

Taxi-driver applicants must be 'of good character', meeting strict requirements regarding any criminal record, then first pass a written test which qualifies them to make an "appearance". At appearances, Knowledge boys and girls must, without looking at a map, identify the two points of interest in metropolitan London that their examiner chooses and then choose the shortest and most sensible route from one to the other. For each route, the applicants must recite the names of the roads used, when they cross junctions, use roundabouts, make turns, and what is 'alongside' them at each point.

Academic research

Knowledge boys/girls and their online learning communities have been the subject of academic research, including a PhD dissertation by Drew Ross at Oxford University.

There is evidence that training for the Knowledge can measurably alter the hippocampus of trainee cab drivers. The hippocampus is the area of the brain used for spatial memory and navigation, and is generally larger in taxi drivers than in the general population.

Film and literature

A humorous 1979 television film about this learning experience, called ''The Knowledge'', was written by Jack Rosenthal for Euston Films, and was in 2000 voted number 83 in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute.

In the '' Up Series'' documentary films, Tony Walker is seen on his motor scooter learning "The Knowledge" before becoming a cab driver. Later, his wife Debbie joins him after qualifying herself.

In the '' Chas—The Knowledge'' miniseries, which was a spin-off from the comic book ''Hellblazer'', Chas Chandler's job as a taxi driver is the basis for various plot elements of the series.

The Knowledge, its runs, and to a certain extent the role of the PCO, form the basis for a future religion in Will Self's '' The Book of Dave''.

TfL Taxi and Private Hire office

The Public Carriage Office (PCO), which regulated and licenses taxis and private hire (commonly known as minicabs) was transferred from the Metropolitan Police to become part of Transport for London in 2000.""Where to, Guv?"
London Assembly Transport Committee report into the Public Carriage Office, November 2005 In 2015, there were around 298,000 licensed drivers in England, of which 164,000 were private hire licences, 62,000 were taxi licences and 72,000 were dual licences. Greater London, a metropolitan area with a population of about 8 million, has no grid plan laying out streets either parallel or at right angles to each other; thus the streets of London follow complex patterns."The Knowledge, London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test, Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS"
Blog post by Jody Rosen ''The New York Times Magazine'' November 2014

The Taxi and Private Hire office is the body responsible for licensing taxicabs within Greater London. Taxi and Private Hire is part of Transport for London and is responsible for licensing the familiar London taxicab or "black cab" and also licenses private hire or minicab services. "Black cabs" were traditionally coloured black, but this is not a requirement and cabs are painted in other colours, sometimes bearing advertising; however they are traditionally called black cabs to distinguish them from minicabs.

History

Since 1600 public carriages for hire have been a feature of London life. The discarded coaches of aristocratic families, complete with their coat of arms, were among the first hackney carriages to ply for hire. They were the forerunners of the French hackney carriage or cab (cabriolet) which first appeared in London around 1820.

The first horseless cab, the Bersey electric-powered vehicle, appeared in 1897, followed by the first internal combustion engine cab in 1903. At that time London still had more than 11,000 horse-drawn cabs. The last horse-drawn cab was removed from service in 1947. As of July 2019, there are over 21,000 licensed vehicles on London's roads.

Regulation of the trade passed to the Registrar of Metropolitan Public Carriages (better known as the Public Carriage Office), formed by the Hackney Carriages, Metropolis Act 1838 and transferred to the Metropolitan Police in 1850. It was originally based in a small building called "the Bungalow" near the original site of Scotland Yard at the north end of Whitehall, remaining there even when the Yard moved to the Norman Shaw Buildings in 1890. It moved to 109 Lambeth Road in 1919, remaining there until 1966, when it moved to 15 Penton Street, Islington. In 2010 it moved again to the Palestra Building at 197 Blackfriars Road, Southwark.

Present role

On the formation of Transport for London on 3 July 2000, the licensing authority changed; however, the day-to-day licensing function remained with the Public Carriage Office.

With the introduction of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 the role of the PCO has been expanded to include the licensing of private hire operators, drivers and vehicles, bringing the capital into line with the rest of England and Wales.

In November 2005, in the report ''Where to, Guv?'', the London Assembly's Transport Committee reported on a review of the Public Carriage Office and made some key recommendations.

Pedicabs (London) Act 2024

The (c. 7) was passed giving TfL the power to regulate pedicabs within guidance published by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Notes

References

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Transport in London