Nighteen-seventy-five was a year when London-based Victorian entrepreneurs were at their zenith, onward march to success knew no bounds, and philanthropy was accepted as an obligation.

George Routledge’s publication of 1875 titled The Popular Guide to London and its Suburbs described London as “…the true centre of the world, come ships from every clime, bearing: the productions of nature, the results of labour, and the fruits of commerce. Railways converge to it, and science, art, discovery, and invention seek it as their true home.”

This year proved no exception to Routledge’s description.

In 1875 with a £2,000 loan from his future father-in-law, Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his iconic store in a half shop at 218a Regent Street with three staff members, selling ornaments, fabric and objets d’art from Japan and the East. Within eighteen months, he had repaid the loan and acquired the second half of 218 Regent Street.

Joseph William Bazalgette was knighted for completing London’s sewage system.

The Public Health Act of 1875 made it compulsory for local authorities to purchase, repair or create sewers.

The Chimney Sweeps Act forbade employing young boys to climb up chimneys.

A group calling themselves The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London employed Alfred and John Bool to publicise their campaign to save the Oxford Arms a 17th-century old coaching inn in East London.

Captain Matthew Webb became the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids, when on 24th August 1875, he swam from Dover to Calais in less than 22 hours.

The first newspaper weather map was published in The Times on 1st April 1875, the work of polymath Francis Galton explorer, anthropologist, statistician and meteorologist. The map was not a forecast, but a representation of the conditions of the previous day, readers could then make their predictions based on the information it provided.

In 1875 the impressively named Sir George Carlyon Hughes Armstrong, Bt took control of the loss-making London-based Globe Newspaper, without previous experience of journalism, he transformed it into a leading broadsheet, supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Britain’s first Jewish leader.

And on Saturday 6th February 1875, on a cold wintery morning, a group of Victorian worthies, including the aforementioned Sir George, accompanied by a few dozen cabbies stood on a misty St. John’s Wood road listening to speeches marking the inauguration of London’s first cabbies’ shelter.

Since that first shelter opened, exactly 150 years ago, these unnoticed cafés have been serving up meals, and providing shelter to London’s cabbies.

To mark this anniversary, today my new novel On The Meter is being published:

On a cold wet London night, Frank Belzoni finds a laptop in his cab, little did he realise where the journey would lead.

The nascent Shelter Sleuths uncover a plot to monitor Londoners, resulting in blackmail, espionage and murder.

Can the Sleuths convince the authorities of the dangers, and will they survive to find the spy within their ranks?

I’m holding a competition to win a signed copy of On the Meter to celebrate publication day in a shameless piece of self-promotion.

To enter, all you have to do is identify the road where the first shelter was located.

Entries should be sent via CabbieBlog’s Contact Page.

You may make as many entries as you like.

The competition is open until 23.59 GMT on Sunday 16th February 2025. The winner will be contacted by Saturday 22nd February 2025.

Good luck!

If you have a distaste for receiving free things or are too impatient to wait, here’s where you can buy it. On the Meter is now here available on Amazon.

Cabbieblog’s decision as to the winner is final. CabbieBlog reserves the right to decide the winner if there are two correct entries. Apart from notifying the winner, no correspondence relating to the competition will be entered. Up to the closing date, there is no limit on the number of entries a person can make. Cabbieblog reserves the right to cancel alter or amend the competition at any stage if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.