ALL THINGS LICENSING “Dear Sir,
We located your unattended hackney carriage outside Greggs and have safely accommodated your Toyota Prius. Please collect it from the station and settle your flat bed truck recovery and parking fees.”
Byelaws: the model regulations we somehow still use
doors have spilled their last few patrons onto the street. Their excited chatter fades into the darkness as they hurry toward their destinations. The façade of the theatre looks almost ghostly under the gas lamps that flank the entrance.
But the carriage waits, its driver perched high on the box seat, silhouetted by the faint backlight of the theatre doorway behind him. He’s wrapped in a heavy coat and a well-worn top hat pulled low, keeping watch for latecomers or lingering playgoers seeking a ride home.
The street is otherwise quiet. Shops are shuttered tight; windows are dark. This is not a place where carts would be left unattended, nor where horses and wagons would be idling unless there was profit to be made. A working hackney is a purposeful presence its very being here announces its role. In the Victorian cityscape the hackney
carriage isn’t just
transportation, it is a familiar beacon of the era, an unmistakable sign of a cabman waiting for trade in the hours when the theatres empty and respectable citizens hurry home.
It is upon this background that ‘plying for hire’ prosecutions are still instigated today.
Section 62: when you lose your taxi… and your horse
One of my particular favourites is Section 62, which deals with the problem of drivers “abandoning” their hackney carriage. The Act provides that:
1. If a driver abandons their carriage, 2. The police may seize it, 3. Take it, the horse and any harness, to a stable, 4. And then charge the owner for the privilege.
This power still exists today and is something many licensing officers use in cases where drivers leave their vehicles unattended on the taxi rank to nip to the shops or use other local facilities. Imagine the modern equivalent of this enforcement process:
PHTM APRIL 2026
Alongside the 1847 Act, councils still rely on DfT model byelaws – some of which feel like they were drafted with a quill pen while someone argued with their manservant. A few of my favourites from the model byelaws include:
1. Drivers must behave in a “civil and orderly manner”: Translation: no scowling at passengers or being rude, even the ones who insist on paying with a £50 at 2am.
2. Drivers must be “clean and respectably dressed” Timeless advice, though Victorian “respectable dress” probably involved far more bowler hats and waistcoats.
3. No passenger may wilfully soil/damage the carriage Originally intended for muddy boots and misbehaving livestock. Today: mostly kebabs or perhaps that last tequila before you left the pub which never ends well.
4. Drivers must provide “reasonable assistance with luggage”
Once meant helping with trunks, hat boxes, and crates of chickens. Now: manoeuvring 35kg wheeled suitcases designed by an aerospace engineer in an airport short- term drop-off where you are charged for the privilege.
In conclusion: a Law with Victorian charm - but not for much longer?
As we hopefully move toward modernisation, it’s worth appreciating the idiosyncratic history behind taxi law. After all: l Few professions can say they’re governed by legislation that also prevents cockfighting.
l Fewer still rely on a law allowing police to stable horses. l And absolutely nobody else is waiting for a 19th century statute to be reviewed so it can stop double handling rules on fireworks and hackney fares.
Change is coming; but until the new framework arrives, the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 remains our wonderfully eccentric if not somewhat frustrating regulatory companion.
And long may it continue preventing furious driving in the meantime.
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