The dawn of the modern era of London Hackney Carriage was to be re-titled to Taxi Cab by the introduction of the Taxi meter in 1907.
Emerging car manufacturers raced to develop a motorised vehicle, with a French-built Prunel winning the race to be the first petrol-powered Hackney Carriage to hit London streets.
It was felt by the police authority at the time, that fares needed to be set identical to those of the established horse-drawn cabs, so as not to creat a two tiered system amongst the public.
The new carriages officially became known as taxis around 1907 when the fitting of taximeters to display fares was made compulsory, plus the famous small turning circle of the London cab was introduced as part of the Public Carriage Office’s ‘Conditions of Fitness’ regulations, which declared that all taxis must have a turning circle of 25 feet at maximum.
When the trade changed from horse drawn carriages to motorised, it was felt necessary to introduce a new system of badges.
The very first Motor Cab badge...number 1...was issued to James 'Jimmy' Michael Howe a veteran of Hansom Cabs for many years, and in 1903, he became the first licensed London Hackney driver to pick up a passenger in a petrol driven vehicle (a French-built Prunel) provided by the Express Motor Company, wearing his brand new badge.
The First Petrol Powered Cabs:
Howe's vehicle, the first Licensed Hackney Carriage to be powered by petrol, was the only one in London for several months. Two years later, the number of motorised petrol cabs had still only risen to just 19.
His wife, fed up with him working all hours and hardly ever being at home, run off in 1913 with a man who’d advertised in their local paper for a wife. She even took all the furniture with her.
Howe never saw her again till seven years later, when she appeared in court, charged with committing bigamy.
James(Jimmy) Howe appeared in court himself three years later where he was sued for damages by a utility company, after his Taxi crashed through the barriers and fell into a hole in Uxbridge Road, damaging their equipment.
Howe died on Christmas day 1933 at his home on Wellesley Avenue, Hammersmith, aged 64. Dozens of fellow cabbies drove their cabs, following the funeral procession, to pay their respects. "We called him 'Up-Hendon'," one of them told the press, "because if you asked him where he was off to, he'd answer 'just going up Hendon way'".
Surprisingly there has only been just over 80,000 Taxi drivers registered with a green badge in the 117 years that it’s been in use.
Equating to approx 28 new badges issue a week, although over the past year, this number has dropped dramatically.
The week ending 28:02:2021, the issue of new badges were down to just 6 new that week with 46 badge numbers being retired or not renewed.
London's Black Cabs:
As well as setting the tone for the general proportions of all black cabs since, the Austin FX3 is also the reason why all London taxis tend to be black in colour. Up until 1948, taxis were produced in all sorts of different colours, but the FX3 was produced in black as standard... with buyers having to pay extra for special colours.
For fleet owners, who would typically buy large numbers of the vehicles, the extra cost proved an expense too far and so the vast majority of FX3s on the streets were simply left as standard factory black.
These days, it’s not uncommon for taxis to come in all sorts of colours and liveries but they’re still unequivocally referred to as ‘black cabs’ all the same.
The FX3 was built by Carbodies in Coventry and became the first of what we know today as the ‘classic’ London taxi with its characteristic silhouette and the orange roof sign, which originally read ‘For Hire’. FX3s were originally powered by petrol engines, but this often proved too uneconomical for the high mileage taxi drivers typically put in. So in 1954 Austin swapped it for a diesel.
In 1958, the FX3 design evolved into the FX4, which still serves as the basis for the modern TX4 models. Probably the most famous of all London taxi designs, the FX4 proved so popular that it remained in production for nearly 40 years, and it’s not uncommon to still see original FX4s on the road today.
Adverts And Liveries:
Adverts first appeared on London taxis in 1928 but were scrapped a few years later after the bus companies complained it was denting their advertising revenue. It was only in 1982 that they returned, after a Royal Parks Act was amended to enable the carrying of advertising through the parks.
Cabby Nicknames:
Cab drivers have always given each other nicknames, born out of the fact we get to know so many different drivers, many with the same Christian name, by giving someone a nickname it then becomes easier to pinpoint certain characters without having to know their surnames.
In my 48 years of driving a London Taxi, I can only remember a few of my colleagues who I’d refer to with their proper name.
Here is just a few of my favourite nicknames in no particular order:
Get A Life, Almost Human, Wing-Nuts, The Vicar, Spare Parts, The Haddock, Dizzy, Putty Nose, The Goose, The Judge, Captain Birdseye, Tootles, Lumps and Bumps, The Boston, Dicky the Snail, Storming Norman....And then of course, we have Sponge Bob Square Pants...once seen never forgotten!!!
These are just some of the ones that are publishable ð
Myself, I’ve had a few different nicknames over the years.... started off as Young Jim....then Maida Vale Jim, Fish Finger Jim (because of my passion for fish finger sandwiches), to today’s Thomas The Taxi (which has been modified many times by my critics).
The public carriage office (PCO)which regulated and licensed taxi and private hire (more commonly known as minicabs) was transferred from the Metropolitan Police to become part of Transport for London (TfL) in 2000.
In 2020 TfL announced that it would be dropping the word Black Cab, from any association with London’s Taxis…. unfortunately since becoming our regulator, they have failed miserably to protect the name of the iconic LondonTaxi.

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