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Have you ever spotted a small green hut while walking through the city and wondered what it’s all about? These curious little sheds are rare pieces of London history that have survived against the odds.
Cabmen’s shelters were first built in the late nineteenth century to stop the London cabbies at the time from getting too pissed on the job. Back then the capital’s cabbies drove horse-drawn carriages which meant that while the customer got a seat inside the carriage, the cabbies had to sit on top open to all the elements.
This meant they were in dire need of a few pit stops and pubs were the only places for a rest and maybe a tipple or two. Great, if you need to warm up fast, not so great if you need to then drive passengers around town without turning over your cab in the process.
So, the humble Cabmen’s Shelter was created as a toasty haven for cabbies to get a hot meal and, most importantly, a non-alcoholic drink.
At one point, between 1875 and 1914, there were 61 shelters across London serving weary, hungry cabmen. Each one was no bigger than a horse and cart and they were all painted the same shade of Dulux Buckingham Paradise 1 Green, making them easy for cab drivers to spot.
Now there are only 13 shelters left in the capital – one of the few reminders of London’s horse-drawn hansom cab trade. Previously, only ten of them had been placed on the National Heritage List to protect them from development, but last week two more were listed at Grade II by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.
The first is the shelter at Pont Street built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund in 1892. That replaced an earlier one from 1875, which was one of the first cabbies’ shelters in London. The second is the shelter at Chelsea Embankment built in 1912.
Many of the shelters still serve food to the men and women with The Knowledge. However, the shelter at Chelsea Embankment has been newly restored and will be opening later this year as a public micro café. So if you’re after a sarnie with a side of history, you know where to come.
Find out what happened when Time Out spent a day in a cabmen’s shelter.
Find more weird and wonderful things to see in London.