3-077-979 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches of London Cabs and Cabmen: a London gondola, 1890. 'The subjects of our Artist's Sketches are familiar types of common objects in the street-world of London. One of our novelists long ago suggested the idea of calling the ready hansom ''the London gondola"; and it may really be entitled, when it has attained sufficient antiquity, to be regarded by future generations as a vehicle not less romantic, being certainly picturesque, than the black canal-barge of Venice...There are in the streets of London, exclusive of the City, about six hundred public cab-ranks, besides those at the railway-stations, with an average of nearly ten standings for cabs at each place, but these are seldom entirely occupied. Considering the enforced idleness of many long hours spent in waiting for fares, the behaviour of the men on these ranks is generally as good as could reasonably be expected...The last annual report of the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police puts the number of licensed "hansoms," two-wheeled cabs, at 7396, and of "clarences," or four-wheelers, at 4013, while there was an increase of 1136 - mostly of hansoms - in the year 1888'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.