- 1 Wellington Place
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51.531917, -0.169556 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)
- Green shed near the park entrance. Notice reading "A place of affluence and decadence".
- Price
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£5
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Historical background
In the early 1875 Sir George Armstrong, the editor of The Globe, couldn’t find a cab — the weather was nasty, and cabmen were all hiding in a pub nearby, drinking and not ready to drive. This motivated him to set up a charity to open a chain of establishments for cab drivers, in which they could find shelter from the rain, eat hot food, and drink hot (non-alcoholic!) drinks.
These shelters were supposed to be located by the road (so cabmen could safely leave their cabs), so Metropolitan Police imposed restrictions — shelters should not be larger than a horse carriage. Despite such strict restrictions, there was enough space inside for a small kitchen and up to 13 visitors.
Like pretty much everything else in Victorian Britain, these shelters were not just a convenient utilitarian establishment, but also raised the social status of the cabmen: they could not drink alcohol, gamble, and, in some cases, even discuss politics in these shelters.
People of other professions were allowed in as well — and enjoyed it quite often (where else could you have breakfast at 3am?). Edward Dawson, decadent poet, used to have breakfast there in the middle of the night, not because he was hungry, but simply for the sake of nonconformism. In September 1888 one of the shelter visitors, who introduced himself as Dr Duncan, insisted that he was in fact Jack the Reaper (nobody paid attention to him though).
Today there are 13 of these shelters left in London. Like in the old days, they’re welcoming cabmen, however now it’s exclusive for licensed black cab drivers — general public and Uber drivers are left with a takeaway menu.
Besides the cab drivers’ membership fees and revenue from selling coffee, a significant amount of profit comes from Universal Studios — the company bought the rights to replicate the shelters in the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando to create “London-like” vibe in one of the park areas.
Present in routes of categories Lion, Lion-Mini, Atlas
Passed by: 47/48 (98%).
By categories:
- Atlas: 5/5 (100%)
- Lion: 36/37 (97%)
- Lion-Mini: 6/6 (100%)