London Taxi Tour

17/09/2026

Everyone photographs the Gherkin. Nobody looks down.
There is a girl under the pavement on Bury Street. Roman, teenage, buried around 400 AD in a spot where Roman law said you were not allowed to bury anybody.
They dug her out in 1995, kept her in a museum for twelve years while the glass went up, then processed her back through the streets in 2007 with a Roman service.
Twelve years is a long wait for a plot in the City. Ask anyone trying to get planning permission.
Have you ever spotted the wreath, or is this a new one on you?

16/09/2026

Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, but arguably its most important feature is outside.

The balcony is where the Royal Family becomes visible to the public. It has provided the backdrop to celebrations, weddings, jubilees and moments of national significance.

Buckingham Palace is a home. It is also a stage.

Have you ever watched a royal balcony appearance from The Mall?

14/09/2026

14/09/2026

Nice bike rack. Shame about the crossing underneath it. • Zig-zags are a controlled area in law • You cannot stop, wait or overtake in them • They exist so a driver sees a child before the child sees a bumper In 1662 Parliament licensed the hackney coach trade, capped it at 400, and made every coach carry a mark of distinction. It also billed the trade for paving. Use the highway to earn, you get a number and a bill. Dockless bikes: eight years in London before anyone handed out a licence. Which London street would you nominate for worst bike dump?

12/09/2026

You’ve probably walked past her.

But do you know who she is?

She stands in London today with a remarkable story behind her. The huge disc behind the figure gives you a clue about just how far that story reaches.

No Googling.

Who is she, and where in London would you find her?

Put your answer in the comments. I’ll reveal the full story in the next post.

01/09/2026

One from the cab. When Westminster Bridge opened in 1750, Parliament put it in the Bloody Code. Wilfully damage the bridge and you hanged for it, no appeal. Twelve salaried watchmen on the deck. Thirty two lamps, which was serious money in 1750. And on opening day the pickpockets worked the crowd and folk went home without their money and their watches. Today that crossing is carved four ways. TfL has the road, Westminster the north pavement, Lambeth the south, the Met the crime. Westminster once had an order against street gambling on there it could not enforce for two years because nobody put the signs up. Lambeth let its own order lapse in 2022. Every part of that bridge has been replaced, including the bridge. The illegal trading is the only thing that has run continuously for 276 years. So is this a policing problem, or has nobody ever properly owned that bridge? Tell me I am wrong.

28/08/2026

This door has been in a scene you’ve watched a dozen times. You just never noticed it.

Some doors just open into a stairwell. This one opened into a gadget lab. On screen, anyway.
Ordinary stone building. Extraordinary cameo.
One franchise. One iconic department. This door was the entrance.

Millions have seen this shot. Nobody clocks the door.

London supplies more spy-film locations than anywhere outside a studio backlot, because it already looks the part.
MI6 wishes their real security was this understated

First person to name the film AND the department wins bragging rights. Go.

26/08/2026

Behind Tate Modern, tucked off Hopton Street, there’s a courtyard of 1752 almshouses that most people walk straight past. Still housing older Southwark residents. Still doing the job Charles Hopton’s will paid for.
Under the garden is a large air raid shelter. Here’s the part nobody mentions: it wasn’t dug for the residents. It was built for the workers at the local print works. Bankside was wharves, power and printing back then. The bombs came, the buildings were hit hard and rebuilt, and the industry eventually packed up and left.
The shelter is used for storage now.
So here’s my question. A charity founded in 1752 has outlasted every business that ever operated on that street. Do you reckon anything built round there in the last thirty years will still be standing in 2290?

24/08/2026

Here is one from just off Blackfriars Road. Hopton Street, behind the Tate. There is a small brick house wedged in against the Bankside Lofts, and it is older than everything around it by about three hundred years.
The interesting bit is not the age. It is the roofline and the windows. That overhanging timber cornice was banned in London in 1707. Those window frames sitting flush with the brick were banned in 1709. Both were fire rules brought in after the Great Fire. This house went up around 1702, and at the time it was in Surrey, outside London’s jurisdiction, so none of it applied.
Anyone worked in the old Lloyds datacentre on Hopton Street before they knocked it down? That whole block has changed twice in my driving lifetime.
Do we protect the right buildings in this city, or just the pretty ones?

20/08/2026

In 1964 a Jaguar Mark X was driven at speed straight down Burlington Arcade.
Six masked men got out, smashed the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths window, took the jewellery and drove out the far end. Nobody was ever caught.
The response says everything about how this place works. The arcade didn’t rely on the Met. It installed bollards at both ends so no car could ever run that route again.
That’s private London in one decision. Spot the weakness. Build it out. Keep control.
Two hundred yards of Mayfair, still policing itself since 1819.
I run private black cab tours of London for people who want the city explained properly. Booking details on my page.
www.londontaxitour.com

BLACKOUT PROTOCOL: A LONDON THRILLER https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H8Z5ZP2T?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_ud_dp_B9CB22298MV0B03QWZSC&bestFormat=true