HARRODS (n.) Costermonger of Middle Eastern provenance, much given to exorbitant prices
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
All posts by Gibson Square
The London Grill: Tom Hutley
We challenge our contributors to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat they will face the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.
Tom Hutley is a London cabbie who shares his working experiences on YouTube (nice to see he’s finally putting his degree in Film Production to good use).
Tom is also a qualified tour guide in the London Borough of Camden, Freeman of the City, and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers.
What’s your secret London tip?
Links, it’s all about links. Ask questions and link them together. Everything links together. Street names, dates, places. You can uncover so much history if you just link it.
What’s your secret London place?
Lower Robert Street. Very rarely is it ever needed in the taxi. But when you do need it, wow it makes feel like James Bond, your passenger too!
What’s your biggest gripe about London?
When people don’t have a plan. If my friends come up I always ensure we have some kind of itinerary. Otherwise, you WILL just end in Leicester Square. It is a vortex, a lot of tube lines converge there or nearby. You follow crowds and hustle. Next thing you know, you’re having Pret for lunch followed by a pint in a Greene King tourist trap wondering where your money went and why your pint tastes awful.
What’s your favourite building?
This always changes for me, but currently; No. 1 London. Apsley House (the house of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington). For something so prominent, people often miss it. Going inside and observing the grand Waterloo Banquet painting in the Portico Drawing Room before stepping into the Waterloo Gallery (where the banquet was held). It just blew my mind, if those walls could talk.
What’s your most hated building?
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. How was this monstrosity allowed when it’s surrounded by; The Supreme Court (at least now it is), The Institute of Civil Engineers, Central Methodist Hall, and of course Westminster Abbey.
What’s the best view in London?
My favourite ‘window’ is on the pavement between Sherwood Street and Glasshouse Street (almost under the Piccadilly screens). Under the arched Alliance Life Office you can see the Grand Old Duke of York, and then the Union Jack flying high on the Victoria tower at Parliament. I find it amazing how certain landmarks align from different viewpoints.
What’s your personal London landmark?
Holborn Circus and Rotunda. I broke down on my motorbike here at about 2:00 am in 2009. Way before I had ever heard of The Knowledge. I can remember being cold and having no clue where I was. I was at the entrance of Ely Place. When I got recovered, the tow truck driver took me over the deserted Holborn Viaduct, through the narrow restrictions, up Little Britain and into the Rotunda. I was just in awe, seeing the Giant cycle shop and how bright their display was. The way the Rotunda just hits you in the face as you approach it. The height of the buildings that surround it. The walkways that lead over to it. I had never seen anything like it. Fast forward to 2014 I took a job in a nearby office and I got to relive that journey every day on my commute.
What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?
Film – The Knowledge by Jack Rosenthal. It’s just timeless, it gives me shivers and makes me so proud to be a cabbie. Book – This is London (Ben Judah). It illuminates a side of London that you often never see, the people who come to seek fortunes in London but end up being pushed to the periphery of society. Documentary – I really like some of Vice YouTube pieces. It’s more documenting underworldly criminal activity, but of course, generally taking place in London. Metaphorically, I’m just turning over the stones and seeing all the hidden facets of London.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
More cafe/eatery, but I love Sapori’s on Horseferry Road. It’s great value, and in the evenings just has a wonderful energy about it. Yes, it’s frequented by cabbies, but overhearing the conversations with the odd mention of a London road name or two. It just makes me feel at home.
How would you spend your ideal day off in London?
Tube into town, reading a non-fiction book; Grab a drink from an independent coffee shop; Walk to a nearby museum; Grab a quick bite to eat; Bus across town a different area; Try a pub I’ve never been to; Walk to another nearby pub; Grab a cab to a tube station; Tube home; Repeat next weekend.
London in Quotations: Squire Randal
Sir, London is a strange place, and you must look with a keen eye, and stay in it a great while, before you will be a master of half its expedients.
Randal, Squire Randal’s Excursion round London
London Trivia: The elephant in the room
On 3 April 1965, the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, a bleak modernist architectural edifice of 120 units and a tower, was opened by Ray Gunter, the Labour Party’s Minister of Labour. Only thirty-five units were taken prior to completion.
On 3 April 1913 Emmeline Pankhurst was sentenced to three years in prison for inciting supporters to place explosives at David Lloyd George’s home
Living in Cheyne Walk Keith Richard once had his Bentley Flying Spur fitted with Turkish flags to fool the police he had diplomatic immunity
The precarious nature of Albert Bridge, known as The Trembling Lady, forced authorities to order troops to break step when marching over it
It was once illegal to die in The Houses of Parliament for to do so the deceased would be entitled to a costly and undeserved State funeral
After the Dissolution much of Westminster Abbey’s revenues were transferred to St Paul’s hence the phrase ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’
The Underground roundel was taken and adapted from one used by the London General Omnibus Company, it was modified by Edward Johnston
At Twickenham on international match days fans consumed 120,000 pints, their dispensing system can pour a pint of beer in under 3 seconds
Saracens are the world’s first rugby union club to play competitively on an artificial surface, come the end of the season the edges are rolled back for athletics
The Jubilee Line is the only one to connect with all the other Underground Lines. The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979
The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first opportunity the public got to glimpse a rugby ball, even though the manufacturer, leathermaker William Gilbert had supplied pigs’ bladders to Rugby School since 1820s
Georgian London used the farmland that became Belgravia to dump its excrement in such volume asparagus was said to have an undesirable taste
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
Previously Posted: Is that Marble Arch TomTom?
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
Is that Marble Arch TomTom? (24.03.09)
It looks like L’Arc de triomphe to me.
TomTom (so good they named it twice).
In order to earn your license to operate a London Black Cab, a taxi driver has to pass a gruelling examination known as “The Knowledge” which involves memorizing every street and location of public buildings within a six mile radius of Charing Cross railway station. On top of this, we have to know some 320 specified routes through the city that include all the points of interest within a quarter of a mile of the endpoint, and know this off by heart. Think that is tough enough, well there is more: all the major routes in and out of the London suburbs need to be memorized as well. And to pass The Knowledge, and get that coveted license, we have to pass a rigorous exam which includes reciting a precise route from any two points that the examiner fancies. No wonder it can take at least three years to pass, and often very much longer. If you see people on scooters with a clipboard and map attached to the handlebars driving around London, chances are they are doing The Knowledge which can involve travelling up 26,000 miles across the City on our Honda C90’s memorizing those thousands of places of interest, all the one-way streets, no right turns, landmarks and street names.
When I did The Knowledge little did I realise that as time moved on every postcode would also have to be committed to memory. It’s these SatNavs that are to blame you see we Cabbies are constantly given only postcodes as our customers’ destination. So why do we bother with The Knowledge? After all, GPS based SatNav systems are cheap and plentiful and know all this stuff without requiring us to look like the world’s oldest pizza delivery boy. The private taxi companies, known as minicabs in the London have long since realized this. The biggest and most successful firms all have SatNav in their cars, yet according to the London Taxi Drivers’ Association less than 5 per cent of Black Cab drivers are using these devices.
Yet I cannot help but think we London Cabbies have it right: we know the streets better than just about any SatNav device. We don’t try and drive the wrong way up a one way street, we don’t think we should turn left even when it’s obvious the car isn’t going to fit down that alleyway, and we don’t get stumped when a roundabout has been constructed that isn’t yet on the map. More importantly, and this includes even the new breed of device with traffic reporting built in, we know instinctively to avoid a certain street at a certain time because a different route will be quicker.
What’s more, we know that you can get from A to B quicker via C today because of all the road works and temporary traffic lights springing up everywhere (see previous blog).
The truth is that there is more to getting around a city like London than simply knowing the street map, local knowledge is King. And if someone produced a SatNav system with mapping that was up to The Knowledge standard I would not only buy it, I would invest in the company as well. As long as it does not start lecturing me about politics and sport along the way, that is.
Now TomTom take me to the Texas Legation Memorial please and be quick about it.
PS It’s in Pickering Place SW1 just in case you wondered.
