London is a wonderful city full of monuments, museums, parks and places of interest. It is well served by the Underground system, generally known as the Tube, and also by taxis. Taxis are in plentiful supply in the city and each taxi driver knows his way around just about every street in the capital. The licensed taxi trade in London is said to be the oldest regulated public transport system in the world due to Oliver Cromwell. In 1654, he set up the Fellowship of Master Hackney Carriages by Act of Parliament. Obviously, the first Hackney Carriages were horse-drawn and the name ‘Hackney’ comes from the French word for a working horse. It is also interesting that the other name for taxis is ‘cab’ and is a shortened French word, ‘cabriolet’ which was a lighter, two-wheeled vehicle.
The size of taxis was laid down by the Public Carriages Office in 1906 and they had to be roomy enough to accommodate a man in a top hat and for two people to sit opposite each other without their knees touching. Taxi drivers must be well trained and have a responsibility to pick up a fare if they ‘standing in the street’ and cannot refuse a journey of up to six miles or that will take less than an hour. This was designed, of course, to prevent the now non-existent horse from becoming fatigued or thirsty. How times have changed, but the rules remain the same and seem to speak of a more leisurely age, slower, simpler, and less damaging to the environment.
