Black Cab (Sessions)
Last week I went for my first cab ride in London. There are a few interesting things about cabs in London, which I’ll tell you about now:
1. The only legal cabs in London are black cabs. They’re a particular style of car that may have adverts or different colors on the outside, but all of the cabs have the same, unique shape. The reason why this is important is there are cabs in the city that are illegal, which basically means people just wait outside clubs looking to pick up unsuspecting drunk girls and sell them into sex slavery. No big deal.
2. The other cool thing about black cabs is their interior layout. Every sedan-ish in America is basically laid out the same way: 2 seats in the front, 3 in the back, all face the same direction. But do you remember when cars wanted to put extra seats in smaller cars, and they would have a seat or two fold out from the trunk that would face AWAY from the rest of the seats? That’s the genius behind black cabs.
Black cabs have two fold out seats right behind the two front seats. After that, they still have a bench of 3 seats, but just set further back in the cab. This little bit of ingenuity is something I love. If you are getting in the cab with 3 or less people, you can all sit in the back row and have tons of leg room, or put two people on each fold out and one in the middle of the bench to have lots of legroom and personal space. Also, these cabs can comfortably fit five people instead of having to shove people on top of each other and have people laying across the back so you can save pay less per person for the cab.
The reason I found this so interesting is because of something called The Black Cab Sessions. These sessions feature artists and bands playing a song in the back of a black cab as it drives around London. I first saw these sessions well before I came to London and was amazed at how they were able to both being playing instruments while having someone film in the back of a tiny cab. The second I got into one of these cabs, I instantly understood. This little bit of ingenuity not only makes it possible for people to have lots of space in the back of cabs coming back from pubs at night, but it also allows artists to play in the cabs with their instruments, without being pressed for space. A tip of my hat to you, guy who came up with the design for black cabs.
Check out one of my favorite black cab sessions, Bon Iver:
Bon Iver from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.
I had never seen this before – I liked the Eliza Doolittle track. Moi is also a fan of black cabs, and certainly they don’t require as much nerve as cycling around London!