It never fails to amaze me the uses that the London cab can be put once it stops ferrying passengers around. Here is another in the occasional series of novel uses for cabs.
Ronnie Mitchell was a London cabbie as well as a mechanic back in the 70s. He later opened Stable Taxis Garage with his wife, Edna. They quickly built a reputation for their unique ways of running the business and their generosity towards their customers: London’s cab drivers. Ronnie passed away in 2020 aged 92 but lives on in the name of this roving restaurant – Ronnie’s Black Cab.
His grandson Jamie, who also worked in the garage before pursuing a career in catering, has transformed a black cab into a catering waggon cooking Ronnie’s favourite dish – Pie and Mash.
Uber are so desperate to sign up London’s black cabbies they are waiving their service fee for the first six months, in addition, drivers signing up with Uber will also receive a bonus package. A £150 bonus will be awarded to drivers upon successful document upload and approval. Furthermore, an additional £250 bonus will be granted to drivers after completing their inaugural trip on the Uber platform. This digital disruptor must be desperate to gain legitimacy in the capital, the bribe hardly covers a good day’s income
Last month I posted a slightly tongue-in-cheek post about Grumpy, London’s Cabbies? This Grumpytutters list prompted Mark from America to suggest I compile 50 things ‘I love about being a cabbie’. There are many and various reasons to extol the benefits of being a cabbie here’s some of them:
1. A feeling of superiority in The Knowledge that you know London better than almost anyone else
2. Self-employed with no employer breathing down your neck
3. An ability to choose your hours
4. Stop work at a time of your choosing
5. Access to Green Shelters to eat
6. Americans (including Mark) love London’s cabbies
7. Access to private spaces (for me Downing Street)
8. Get to talk to interesting people (see back of my cab)
9. Giving Chelsea Pensioners free lifts
10. Join the Magical Taxi Tour on its annual journey carrying children suffering from a range of chronic illnesses and life-limiting conditions to Disneyland Resort Paris
11. Being waived through police roadblocks
12. Being let out of side roads by fellow cabbies
13. Staying in bed instead of rushing to work on time
14. A panoramic view of the world’s best cities from the window of your ‘office’
15. Talk to interesting people every day
16. The ability to work part-time in early retirement
17. You rarely encounter the same difficult customer
18. Working outside whilst keeping dry and warm
19. The comradery of other London cabbies
20. Your golf clubs fit in the boot of a London cab
21. Dress (within reason) how you like at work
22. You don’t have to justify and reapply for your job every year
23. You can bore anyone who’ll listen about ‘famous people in the back’
24. You earn enough to pay for a private osteopath to help your back (an occupational hazard)
25. Being told by an old cabbie “The game’s dead”, to find it’s not
26. Friendly hotel doormen allowing the use of the facilities
27. Meeting like-minded students at Knowledge Schools – and remaining friends
28. Just knowing where the best chippies are in London
29. Being able to turn up at a garage and have the cab fixed without making an appointment
30. You go to places you otherwise couldn’t and see people you would never have met
31. Get to conduct tourist tours
32. The profession is open to everyone, so you’ll always meet a cabbie with an interesting life story
33. You can usually pick your customers and ignore the drunks
34. Not needing an organisation like Uber to survive
35. The opportunity to harangue a politician with the doors locked in your cab
36. When the train/bus/tram drivers strike you can still get to work (and earn a lot more)
37. People are genuinely interested in your profession, asking questions even while on holiday
38. You work in a safe environment, thanks to the driver’s partition
39. There’s always something new to discover in London
40. The public is always interested in The Knowledge
41. Driving the iconic London cab (TXI) is a privilege it’s so well-designed
42. You have the satisfaction of being the only one responsible for your income
43. Our profession seems to be the go-to for the opinion of Londoners
44. If you’re prepared to put in the hours a decent living can be earned
45. Your vehicle can be driven for personal use without having to pay Sadiq Khan’s penalties
46. A cab is a great people carrier
47. The cab’s spacious interior can be used to transport large items, including Christmas trees
48. When we protest on-mass we always get on the local TV news
49. We can use bus lanes to avoid the traffic
50. You can get to write a blog (and a book!)
There is no river in the world to be compared for majesty and the witchery of association, to the Thames; it impresses even the unreading and unimaginative watcher with a solemnity which he cannot account for, as it rolls under his feet and swirls past the buttresses of its many bridges; he may think, as he experiences the unusual effect, that it is the multiplicity of buildings which line its banks, or the crowd of sea-craft which floats upon its surface, or its own extensive spread. In reality, he feels, although he cannot explain it, the countless memories which hang forever like a spiritual fog over its rushing current.
Hume Nisbet, Gaslit Nightmares “The Phantom Model”: Stories by Robert W. Chambers, Charles Dickens, Richard Marsh, and others
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