Anglotopia

The following is a guest post from Graham Greenglass, a London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide. Check out his cool London tours here.

London is a small village of eight million people.  You don’t believe me?  Here’s a story to illustrate my point. Firstly, I suppose you should know that I’m a London taxi driver and on any day I can drive my black cab to any and many parts of this urban sprawl of said eight million. There is not a part of London I have not seen or been to.

One chilly morning last week I was driving empty through Kensington High Street, approaching Wholefoods (yes, we have one) when I was hailed by a slim middle aged woman, who turned out to be American.

We drove to her destination – a small Mayfair side street – via Hyde Park, past the Wellington Barracks billet of the Household Cavalry on the right, and to the left the former site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, now just a giant rectangle of grass.  The metered fare came to £11.60 which she topped up to £12.00, paying with a £20 note.

The day drags on, job follows job – sometimes more quickly than at other times – and around mid afternoon I find myself driving empty through Kensington High Street, approaching Wholefoods, when I was hailed by a slim middle aged woman, who turned out to be American.  The same middle aged American woman as before.

We laughed and made light conversation about the coincidence and when I dropped her off, in Chelsea, the metered fare came to £11.60 which she topped up to £12.00, paying with a £20 note.

This tale of connectivety brings me rather neatly to a little game that I’ve invented called ‘Six Degrees of London Separation’. It’s a simple and quite obvious game which is topped and tailed by two London subjects (the subjects can be anything or anyone connected to London at anytime).

For the first game I have selected two random and seemingly incongruous subjects: Harrods and Johnny Rotten.

Harrods – Henry Harrod, a small time tea merchant from Eastcheap in the City, bought a grocery shop in the village of Knightsbridge in 1849.  The business expanded and grew until the famous terracotta brick department store was built in 1901-05.

Dodi Fayed – Son of present Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, who bought the store in 1985.

Princess Diana – Died in a car crash with boyfriend Dodi Fayed in Paris in August 1997.

Paul Burrell – Butler and PA to Princess Diana, up to her untimely death.

‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ - Reality TV show on which Paul Burrell was a contestant (Series4).

Johnny Rotten – Londoner Johnny Rotten was lead singer of London punk band the Sex Pistols.  Under real name of John Lydon was lead singer of Public Image Limited and was a contestant on reality TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ (Series 3).

Perhaps for this game to be more fun it should really involve the Anglotopia reader.  Email your two ‘separated’ suggestions to me at: enquiries@londoncabtours.co.uk /Subject: Six Degrees.

London Taxi Drivers Slang (pt1)

London Taxi Drivers have always had their slang.  It tends to be a mixture of the trades’ own originated words and phrases, cockney rhyming slang (but particular to the taxi trade) and borrowed.  Here are three examples:

The Wedding Cake – The Queen Victoria Memorial (QVM) in front of Buckingham Palace.  Basically it’s a tiered, sculpted ‘top of the wedding cake’ white marble spectacular.  Created by Sir Thomas Brock in 1911.

Sherbert (Dab) – Cockney rhyming slang for Cab.  As in most rhyming slang, only the first word is spoken.  The original sherbert dab was a traditional and much loved British sweet.  Typical usage: “I was driving my sherbert around The Wedding Cake, on my way to The Dead Zoo, when the Billy in the back asks me to take him to The Pit instead”.

Droshky – Borrowed directly from the Polish for Cab.  Many Jewish immigrants progeny were/still are cabbies in London.  Read Isaac Beshevis Singer to find many a Warsaw droshky ridden.

Check out the London Taxi Driver and London Tour Guide website.