Video: The Cabmen’s Shelters Inside London’s Secret Green Sheds

Check out this great video from the BBC about London’s mysterious Cab Shelters.

From the BBC:

To the untrained eye, they are green sheds – an incongruous sight on the busy streets of urban London.

But these wooden structures have, in fact, been part of the street-scene in the capital since 1875 – a refuge for taxi drivers to eat, drink and take shelter from the weather.

These days, just 13 remain – and many now serve the general public at large. But cabbies remain their core customer base. Now, as in the 19th Century, they are looked after by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund – a charity.

A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund will now ensure their place in history is recorded. The Creative Intelligence Agency, a non-profit design and arts organisation, is working with the London Transport Museum to document the shelters’ past, gather oral histories from cabbies and commission art works.

Archive images courtesy of London Metropolitan Archives

Video Journalist: John Galliver

Author: jonathan

Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile who launched Anglotopia.net in 2007 to channel his passion for Britain. Londontopia is its sister publication dedicated to everything London.