Vehicle    From 1834 

Hansom cab

Categories: Transport

Invented and patented by Joseph Hansom. This horse-drawn carriage, or cabriolet, had larger wheels and a lower cab,with the driver sitting behind, giving it greater stability and increased speed, with safety. Small and light it required just one horse and was ideal for London's crowded streets. Its popularity spread across Europe and to the US.

In his 1875 ‘The Way We Live Now’ Anthony Trollope describes an assignation reluctantly attended by Paul Montague, who travels there by Hansom cab:

“How quick that cab went! Nothing ever goes so quick as a Hansom cab when a man starts for a dinner-party a little too early; - nothing so slow when he starts too late. Of all cabs this, surely, was the quickest. Paul was lodging in Suffolk Street, close to Pall Mall, - whence the way to Islington, across Oxford Street, across Tottenham Court Road, across numerous squares north-east of the Museum, seems to be long. The end of Goswell Road is the outside of the world in that direction, and Islington is beyond the end of Goswell Road. And yet that Hansom cab was there before Paul Montague had been able to arrange the words with which he would begin the interview. … Paul .. paid the cabman, - giving the man half-a-crown, and asking for no change in his agony….” (p.371-2, vol.1, Penguin 2001)

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Hansom cab

Commemorated ati

Joseph Hansom

Joseph Aloysius Hansom, 1803 - 1882, architect, founder-editor of The Builder...

Read More

Other Subjects

Phineas Pett

Phineas Pett

Master Shipwright. Born at Deptford Strond (a parish in Deptford). First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard, he designed and built several ships including the 'Prince Royal' which he built i...

Person, Craft / Design, Engineering, Transport

3 memorials
Marylebone Flyover

Marylebone Flyover

This flyover is one end of a short disconnected piece of motorway, the Westway, constructed 1964-70 to relieve congestion, back in the days when this was thought to be the solution. It was part of ...

Building, Transport

1 memorial
Viscount Wakefield of Hythe, Charles Cheers

Viscount Wakefield of Hythe, Charles Cheers

Businessman. Born Liverpool. His brand name being Castrol he was very successful and set up in the City of London. Lord Mayor in 1915-16. Promoted and funded pioneering aviation and motor sports. 1...

Person, Aviation, Commerce, Lord Mayor, Transport

2 memorials
Croydon airport

Croydon airport

Croydon was London's first international airport. The terminal building, 1928 - 1959, was one of the first purpose-built terminal buildings in the world. The air traffic control tower is the first ...

Place, Aviation, Transport

3 memorials
Ship Successe

Ship Successe

Ship originally built as the Bradford.  Referred to 4 times in Pepys' diary.  Was in harbour from November 1658 and was paid off at a cost of £3228. Colonel John Birch and Sir Richard Browne were t...

Vehicle, Transport

1 memorial