LONDON'S HANSOM-CABS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22622, 9 January 1937, Page 6

LONDON'S HANSOM-CABS

THREE STILL SURVIVE || DRIVERS MAKE A LIVING g ... -R-. [FBOM OCR OWN COKRESPOMtCtr] • jjji LONDON, :Dec. 19 |i It is estimated that there woreonce j|| 10,000 horse-cabs plying for hire in tie fe| streets of London. To-day there are" || about 24, of which three are hansoms. |>| Sometimes when the theatre crowds ;ji« are streaming out into the West Erf || the sound of horses' hooves rings out as above the roar of exhausts and tfce || grating of gears. It is one of the re- §| maining hansoms, hired perhaps t; f | some youth in search of a new sens- H tion, or an elderly father giving hii j$ f j children a taste of life in the "naughty nineties.". |g "I suppose the cabmen must make a living, or they would not be keep- ||| ing their cabs going," said Mr. A. 1). la Tait, the secretary of the Cab Drivers Benevolent Association. §j[| ''There are still quite a lot of people. apart from" the seekers of novelty, who prefer the horse-cab to the motor taxi- || cab. Many of the cabmen have regular g;s customers among the older generatios || —particularly women. _ f| "Our association, which was j'oundec || in 1870 bv the then Marquess Tonushend, recently granted annuities to |i some 80 hcrse-eab drivers who belong j to the association. The oldest of thea |[| is over 90." g| The three' drivers whose hansom-cabs p are frequently seen Hitting thro lgh the , "valley"—as they call Piccadilly—are Charlie. Woolf, .who is aged over SO; yj| Albert Frisbee, 63, and one "Monty. . whose surname, for his fellows, is 10- ;t !;! in mists of time. . jj Another veteran is Thomas Tamplmg. || well known in the Regent's P"rk area, where his brougham is in dcEiand by |[| women who like a quiet drive in the j| park on pleasant afternoons. Tampling jj will be SI next spring. Mr. N. Barrow, aged 74, the sK" fretary of the London Cab and Omnibus jji Drivers' Association, himself a former j:< hansom-cab driver, stated that, although the remaining cabmen manage ,1; to make a fair living with their horses, || it is extremely unlikely that when | they die any enterprising person , try to keep the business alive. Some years ago Mr. >, brother, at the age of 78, drives 3 | motor-cab—broadcast with Albert I' ris " | bee. They recalled many adventures ra tho West End. Among their famous | "fares" was King Edward VII. |