Kensington Road Cabmen's Shelter - "The All Nations"
No Black Cabs in need of rest and food today
There are thirteen green huts dotted around central London. These cabmen’s shelters were built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund (established in 1875) and were once part of a much larger network. The shelters were built to provide cabbies with “good and wholesome refreshments at moderate prices”, which is what they have been doing ever since. The surviving shelters, some Grade II heritage-listed, are easily missed. Slightly oversized garden sheds lost in the rush of today’s traffic. Step inside and you will find a tiny kitchen at one end and bench seating for about a dozen customers at the other.
These seemingly modest buildings belie the fact that they are sites of navigational expertise. The cabbies that use them are experts at getting around London. It takes an average of four years to learn ‘The Knowledge’ (a prerequisite for a black cab licence) and, in the process, taxi drivers’ brains adapt to enable them to store a detailed map of the city. The shelters are also conversation hubs, alive with the exchange of anecdotes told and stories overheard as cabbies go about their business of transporting Londoners and visitors from place to place.
Almost opposite the Albert Hall near to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1850 ‘All Nations’ refers to the diversity of visitors visiting the famous Victorian spectacle.
Kensington Road Cabmen's Shelter - "The All Nations"
No Black Cabs in need of rest and food today
There are thirteen green huts dotted around central London. These cabmen’s shelters were built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund (established in 1875) and were once part of a much larger network. The shelters were built to provide cabbies with “good and wholesome refreshments at moderate prices”, which is what they have been doing ever since. The surviving shelters, some Grade II heritage-listed, are easily missed. Slightly oversized garden sheds lost in the rush of today’s traffic. Step inside and you will find a tiny kitchen at one end and bench seating for about a dozen customers at the other.
These seemingly modest buildings belie the fact that they are sites of navigational expertise. The cabbies that use them are experts at getting around London. It takes an average of four years to learn ‘The Knowledge’ (a prerequisite for a black cab licence) and, in the process, taxi drivers’ brains adapt to enable them to store a detailed map of the city. The shelters are also conversation hubs, alive with the exchange of anecdotes told and stories overheard as cabbies go about their business of transporting Londoners and visitors from place to place.
Almost opposite the Albert Hall near to the site of the Great Exhibition of 1850 ‘All Nations’ refers to the diversity of visitors visiting the famous Victorian spectacle.