Knowledge Boys and their Big Hippocampi

London’s Black Hackney Cab drivers are very special. Theirs is more than just any job after spending years to pass a series of tests called The Knowledge.

Timing is everything. I was headed to the Big Smoke from the US for a mere three days.

There’s an awful lot to see in London but never enough time to see it. London is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet. Each year, the English capital greets upwards of 30 million tourists. They want to visit iconic sites like the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, for example. Or Big Ben, Trafalgar Square or the grisly Tower of London. And that’s just the tip of what London offers.

Aficionados like to head to the West End to catch a show, indulge in superior dining or experience “cocktail culture.” Cocktail culture is a bit like the business networking meetings they have here at ungodly hours in the morning but the Brits swap out the coffee and pancakes for dressing up and cocktails. I wasn’t going to London to see the sights though. I had come to attend a funeral but I still had a couple of destinations I wanted to crush in — the British Museum and Strand on the Green. But I couldn’t do it without those wonderful London Black Hackney Cab drivers.

London’s cabbies are very special. And there’s scientific data to prove it. More than 20 years ago, several London cabbies walked into a hospital to have their heads examined. Researchers at University College London (UCL) wanted to find out what kind of people had the biggest brains. So a bunch of volunteers, including a group of London cab drivers, agreed to have their “little gray cells” analyzed to determine their cerebral size.

The hippocampus in the brain is the area where memories are made. Birds use it as their source of navigation; it instinctively ties them to their exact migratory routes each season. The UCL study found that London taxi drivers have “grown” the hippocampi in their brains by studying The Knowledge, a massively long series of tests spread over about four years that all the nearly 24,000 drivers have to pass before being licensed to take the wheel of a London Black Hackney Carriage.
Students beginning The Knowledge ride along on mopeds, bicycles or motorbikes, with notepads at the ready, memorizing the layout of London’s 25,000 streets, landmarks, and points of interest. It’s considered one of the hardest tests in the world. No wonder cabbies need a bigger hippocampus in which to store all that new information.

The Knowledge was first introduced as a requirement for taxi drivers in 1865 or thereabouts. It’s a topographical test like no other. I don’t think anything like it exists anywhere else in the world because London’s streets look more like a bowl of spaghetti or a tangled-up ball of knitting wool, whereas Manhattan’s midtown streets are arranged in a user-friendly grid or, in Paris, its administrative districts, or arrondissements, form a clockwise spiral around the Seine which are much easier to navigate.

Today’s London hackney carriages began life as a remise carriage; a more upmarket horse-drawn vehicle. Historians suggest that it derives from the French word hacquenée, which roughly translates as a horse suitable for hire; not anything to do with the London Borough of Hackney.

The London Black Hackney Carriage is iconic. Its shape has endured throughout the century. The same model has been produced for decades and its hallmark design ensures that a “gentleman could get in without removing his bowler hat,” as penned by Ogden Nash, the American poet. Hackney carriages, were specifically designed with the passenger in mind. Omitting the front passenger seat was a design feature to increase luggage capacity, privacy and convenience. Another key feature is its ability to turn on a 25-foot radius, a feature I learned was designed specifically to accommodate the tiny entrance roundabout at the prestigious Savoy Hotel.

From London’s Heathrow Airport to central London is only about 15 miles. By cab, it takes about an hour and a bit depending on traffic. One can also go by underground directly from Heathrow Central straight through to London.

I chose comfort over a crowded underground and climbed into a Black cab. “Where to?” the driver asked. I asked him to go via Bath Road and the Great West Road towards London. I had lived in that area for over 25 years and I wanted to relive some memories. As we wound our way towards London, I found out my driver’s name was Edward Boyes and he had been a London cabbie for over 35 years. We passed through Hounslow, Chiswick, Hammersmith and then South Kensington. The fare was 67 GBP, about $84. The underground ticket would have cost around 8 GBP. Not bad considering the distance and my comfort after 14 hours of traveling.

Mr. Boyes became my driver throughout the three-day stay. He transported me from place to place and always arrived on time, a huge smile on his face and asking “Where to today, Missus?” I contacted him via TaxiApp, the London cab drivers app. It didn’t let me down. Much better than trying to hail an empty cab. In London, Black Hackney cabs are the only vehicles that can legally be hailed on the street. Uber drivers are trying to get a share of the market, but a black-cab advocacy group is bringing a series of lawsuits to nix that.

London cabbies’ skills are being tested again. This time for a different reason — to determine if their brains can hold clues that may help research into Alzheimer’s disease. The project being carried out by UCL is called Taxi Brains and will study the brains of London cabbies as they map out taxi routes while undergoing MRI scans.

Kudos to London’s Black Hackney cab drivers and their unique abilities!

Sue Quigley writes regularly for the Hernando Sun. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 727.247.6308.

Green Shelters, Haven for London’s Cabbies

Only 13 cabmen shelters remain in London — and only licensed drivers who have passed The Knowledge test – memorizing every street, landmark and route in London – are allowed inside. The shelters are one of the few relics left of nineteenth-century London’s horse-drawn cab trade. They were constructed to provide warmth, food and a rest stop at taxi ranks across the capital.

Each shelter was built to precise measurements — no bigger than a horse and cart — in line with Metropolitan Police rules because they stood on public highways. Strict rules were enforced against swearing, gaming, gambling and drinking alcohol for anyone using the shelters.

Many shelters were lost during the bombings of both the First and Second World Wars. Cabbies were also sent off to fight in the First World War and the cab industry went into a period of decline. Traffic, vandalism and demolition for road widening also accounted for their dwindling numbers.

Of the 13 still operating, the interior is still strictly for black cab license holders. However, any member of the public can grab a hot drink or a bacon sandwich from the hatch.

The shelters’ Grade II Historic England status means restoration is intricate and expensive. Refurbishment costs around £30,000 and replacement materials must match the originals. Even the shade of paint – Dulux Buckingham Paradise 1 Green, which was used on the first huts.