‘N’ Apart from


Now then... this is the category that we have the most fun in perusing, re-reading and contem- plating as to which item or person might covet the award for the most ridiculous, or off-the-wall, or rather unusual occurrence during 2013.


So where to start? How about Unusual: for example, in our July edition we met cabbie Michael Read, from Hampshire, who had a bit of a crisis to deal with and was appealing for volunteer helpers. It turns out that he is Honorary Tribal Chief of a tribe in the Curaca Camp in South America, and their camp headquarters suffered a termite attack which left the wooden huts uninhabitable. One wonders how many folk he got to accompany him on the two- week jaunt to rebuild the huts. A bit far for Nick Knowles and the team at DIY SOS to travel, really...


In the same July issue we had a disaster strike, when a Yeovil cab- bie who parked next to the sea had to be rescued by holiday- makers after his cab got swamped by the incoming tide. Whilst driver Kryxdztof Tomaszek was uninjured, unfortunately his taxi was not so lucky... all gone. Which was nearly a similar fate for the taxi in the March issue, which became impaled on a 10ft drainage pipe whilst going along near Newport on the Isle of


Wight. Again, luckily the driver Jack Jones escaped with his life – which is why we can include these two items in our more light- hearted award category.


Bordering on Unusual but more like “Are you kidding me?”, we had the £60,000 cannabis haul found in the spare tyre of a Liver- pool taxi being conveyed to the Isle of Man. That was reported in our January edition, and the best of it was the credit which should be bestowed on the sniffer dogs that alerted the port police to the class B drugs. The writer of this review has watched the drug dog training programme carried out live at UK airports, and it is quite remarkable. Still under YCMIU (You Couldn’t Make it Up, a la Littlejohn and Page Four) we have the reprise in August of Noel Edmonds’ blow- up passenger, which was installed so that when Noel drives his black cab around the streets of Bristol he appears to be “hired” and therefore people don’t try to flag him down. Well, we knew about the doll, whom he and his wife call ‘Candice’ and regularly change her outfit, but on this occasion a garage owner believed that she was a dead woman. Something about her falling out of the taxi and the garage owner thinking she had frozen to death... How about the boa constrictor who was refused a lift? That was in our September edition, and the poor snake not only didn’t get a ride round Portsmouth’s streets, but when its owner was refused entry into the taxi, the snake was hurled into the nearby


.


GIMME SHELTER


The unpretentious green huts that have sustained London cabbies for more than 130 years are to get a new lease of life, thanks to a £69,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).


LOTTERY FUND ALLOCATE GRANT FOR CABBIE SHELTERS heritage.”


Only 13 of the original 61 Cabmen’s Shelters survive and their role has been largely over- looked; in fact most passers-by are com- pletely unaware of their function. Now the Creative Intelligence Agency, a non-profit arts and design organ- isation, will raise public awareness of their history, help set up a friends group and promote conservation and maintenance to preserve them for the future. It will work with the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund and London Transport Museum.


All the remaining shel- ters, dotted around central London, are Grade II listed and are still looked after by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund that built them between 1875 and 1914. Now, as then, they provide the city’s black cab drivers with a place to rest and buy refreshments.


Sue Bowers, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, said: “These examples of living his- tory, dotted about London’s streets, would continue to dis- appear were it not for such a project. This will not only help to conserve them but also give former cab- bies a voice bringing their heritage to life.” The Cabbies’ Shelters Project will interview present and former cabbies to build up a picture of life in the London taxi trade


The 13 surviving cabmen’s shelters can be found at:


Chelsea Embankment SW3 Embankment Place WC2 Grosvenor Gardens SW1 Hanover Square W1 Kensington Park Road, W11 Kensington Road W8 Pont Street SW1 Russell Square WC1


St George’s Square, Pimlico SW1 Temple Place WC2 Thurloe Place, Kensington SW7 Warwick Avenue W9 Wellington Place NW8


since the Second World War. Also inter- viewed will be some of the people who have run the tiny cafés that operate in each of the shelters.


The shelters were originally built at exist- ing taxi ranks during the day of the horse- drawn cab because cabbies were not allowed to leave their vehicle unattended in order to go for refresh-


ment in a local pub. Their aim was to pro- vide wholesome food and shelter. Because they were to be sited on the highway the police stipulated that the shelters should take up no more room than a horse cab, which explains their diminutive size into which crammed up to a dozen cabbies round a central bench with just room for a


stove and a counter for preparing and serving food and mugs of tea. Etiquette was controlled for those using the shel- ters with an absolute prohibition on gam- bling, drinking and swearing.


Jimmy Jenkins, Trustee of the Cab- men’s Shelter Fund, said: “We’re proud to be looking after them now. Passers-by are always curious about the shelters. We’re looking forward to col- laborating with the Creative Intelligence Agency to share this unique bit of London’s


Martin Harrison-Put- nam, Senior Curator, London Transport Museum, said: “There is a gap in our collec- tion when it comes to material relating to London’s cabbie com- munity so we are delighted to be collab- orating on this original and exciting project. We also welcome the way it will work with London cabbies, con- temporary artists, local schools and community groups to create, collect and interpret this materi- al.”


Danielle Olsen, curator for the Creative Intelli- gence Agency said: “These seemingly modest buildings belie the fact that they are sites of navigational expertise. The cabbies who use them today are experts at getting around London.”


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