London’s iconic hackney taxis may be black but they have a colourful history dating back to the 12th century when the Royal Charter first granted watermen working the Thames River the right to ply for hire.

In those days London was a city clustered alongside a riverbank, and travel by water was a far more agreeable option than journeys along narrow, unpaved roads filled with slow-moving animals and refuse. Watermen ferried their passengers between the Tower of London, the palace of Westminster, Lambeth Palace, Richmond Palace, Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, all of which had river gates. The Ferryman’s Seat where water taxi operators rested between patrons can still be visited today at Bankside.

The Rise of the Horse Drawn Cab

The first record of a land vehicle plying for trade was in 1588 when one Captain Baily outfitted a quartet of four wheeled coaches for service by the maypole that stood in the Strand. By the late 18th century, nearly a thousand of these carriages were for hire on London’s congested thoroughfares. They were called “hackneys,” believed to be a corruption of the Norman French term “Hacquenée” meaning “horse for hire.”

The first two wheeled carriage, called a Hansom after its patent holder, was introduced in 1823. The driver sat in the rear of the taxi which adjusted its aerodynamics, making it far more maneuverable, and therefore much faster. Four wheel “Growlers” continued to be popular with passengers disembarking from long train rides who traveled with a great deal of luggage. Horse-drawn taxis were a familiar sight on London causeways until the beginning of World War I although the very last license for a horse cab wasn’t surrendered until 1947.

The Rise of the Motor Cab

London’s first motor cabs were introduced in 1897. They were powered by electricity rather than by petrol, and nicknamed Hummingbirds for the noise they made. The first petrol-powered taxis were introduced in 1903. In 1906, horse drawn carriages still dominated the London taxi trade, but in that year the General Cab Company commissioned 500 Renault cars from France to use as cabs which completely revolutionized the industry.

The first taxi meters were introduced in 1907; they were called “taximeters” because they had been invented by the German , Baron von Thurn und Taxis and thus the vehicles whose distances they calibrated and whose fares they correspondingly calculated became known as “taxis.”

Taxi Licensing

The laws regulating the taxi trade go back to 1694 when administration was at the behest of the City of London. In 1843, control was ceded to the Home Office who made it compulsory for taxi drivers to wear a metal badge displaying their license number, a regulation that holds until this very day.

Eventually taxi control was assigned to a department of the Metropolitan Police called the Public Carriage Office. In the year 2000, London once again assumed responsibility for the taxi trade which now operates under the guidance of Transport for London, under the auspices of the Greater London Authority.