2010-08-01
Death of a London Icon
This is a London taxi.
It’s iconic, and suited for London’s streets. It has a short wheelbase and hence a tiny turning circle; handy for the City’s narrow roads. The shape is internationally recognised. Sadly, they’re no longer all black - advertising wraparounds did for that - but they’re still a design classic.
Unfortunately, nowadays, this is also a London taxi.
This is a Mercedes van, compete with a horribly ugly stripe paintjob. It doesn’t have the same narrow wheelbase, and it certainly doesn’t have the iconic design.
This isn’t exactly a new change, though. I believe the regulations were changed to allow Mercedes to enter the market at least a year ago. Nonetheless, there’s been far less outcry of this change than there was when bendy buses replaced double deckers (sometimes, replacing the much-loved Routemasters on the same lines).
Personally, though, I’m far more annoyed by the presence of these ugly new taxis than I ever was by the (now doomed, thanks to Boris) bendy buses. At least they still looked like a London bus (since there’ve always been a few single-deck services, admittedly more commonly outside the centre). By contrast, t here’s something offputting about these new taxis.
I wonder what accounts for the lack of complaint. Is it the fact that taxi drivers are each their own little companies, so there’s no overarching bad guy (TfL, or London Buses, or Ken) to pin the blame on? Perhaps it’s the aforementioned dilution of the homogeneity of the taxi, because of advert wraps and different colours, which has been going on for a couple of decades? Is it that the new taxis are accessible? (If so, there’s one hell of a double standard there- bendy buses are far better for wheelchairs and pushchairs than Routemasters, and generally better than modern double deckers). Probably it’s a combination of all of the above, and other factors I haven’t thought of.
Still, every time I see a non-standard taxi, a small part of me sighs, and I suspect it always will.
