Would like to have the experience of riding in a black cab in London. Was wondering if anyone has any advice on doing this. Is it better to call the cab or just flag one down. Also does anyone have a website or the going rates on what these cost?
Posted by
Grass Valley, California
506 posts
Where we stayed in the Belgravia area there was a Cab area right by our hotel. They all line up and you take the next in line. Really nice drivers. If they are not there just wait a couple minutes and they all start showing back up. We took the cab the three times we had to go with our luggage. That was our best spent money on the trip! And they will tell you right up just about how much they expect it to cost.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
135 posts
Hi
It's worth understanding too that ONLY the famous black cabs are allowed to 'ply for hire' i.e. you can simply flag one down from the side of the road. Minicabs (there are also hundreds, many licenced, some not) are ONLY supposed to be 'pre-booked' i.e. minicabs can only be booked to pick you up from place X to take you to place Y; you can't flag them down, and they are not supposed to stop. Just to make matters a little confusing though, many of the black cabs/taxis are not in fact black any more! All of them though will have the 'Taxi' sign on their roof/ 'For Hire' sign next to the driver.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33987 posts
Get it while you can.
If uber win the case there won't be any anymore.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
Black cabs have priced themselves out of the market, at least for singletons and maybe couples. To be fair the operators are not entirely to blame for this as the regulators have insisted on gold-plated standards in a number of areas.