The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England.[1] Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering. Hansom's original design was modified by John Chapman and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.[2] [3]
Cab is a shortening of cabriolet, reflecting the design of the carriage. It replaced the hackney carriage as a vehicle for hire; with the introduction of clockwork mechanical taximeters to measure fares, the name became taxicab.
Hansom cabs enjoyed immense popularity as they were fast, light enough to be pulled by a single horse (making the journey cheaper than travelling in a larger four-wheel coach) and were agile enough to steer around horse-drawn vehicles in the notorious traffic jams of nineteenth-century London. There were up to 7500 hansom cabs in use at the height of their popularity and they quickly spread to other cities in the United Kingdom (including Ireland), as well as continental European cities, particularly Paris, Berlin, and St Petersburg. The cab was introduced to other British Empire cities and to the United States during the late 19th century, being most commonly used in New York City.
The cab, a type of fly, sat two passengers (three if they squeezed in) and a driver who sat on a sprung seat behind the vehicle. The passengers could give their instructions to the driver through a trap door near the rear of the roof. They could pay the driver through the hatch, and he would then operate a lever to release the doors so that they could alight. In some cabs, the driver could operate a device that balanced the cab and reduced strain on the horse. The passengers were protected from the elements by the cab and by folding wooden doors that enclosed their feet and legs and thus protected their clothes from splashing mud. Later versions also had an up-and-over glass window above the doors to complete the enclosure of the passengers. Additionally, a curved fender mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the hooves of the horse.
Other vehicles similar to the Hansom cab include the American light trade cart for deliveries such as bread, the bow-fronted hansom which was fully enclosed and entered through a side door, and the Brougham Hansom which was entered from the rear and driven from a seat on the fore-part of the roof.
The Hansom Cab Company was established in May 1869 to provide transportation in New York City and Brooklyn. The business was located at 133 Water Street, Brooklyn; Duncan, Sherman & Company handled the books of subscription (initial offers of stock to capitalize a new company). The enterprise was organized by Ed W. Brandon who became its president. Two orders for a fleet of cabs were sent to carriage makers in New York City. Fares were to be charged either by distance or time: $0.30 for a single person per mile, or portion thereof, and $0.40 for two people. By time, $0.75 for one person for an hour or portion thereof, $1.00 for two persons.[4]
Two English peers who owned cab companies, Lord Shrewsbury and Lord Lonsdale, raised the standards of all Hansom cabs in London when they purchased upgraded cabs made by Forder, complete with brass fittings, quiet-running rubber tires, and luxuriously fitted interiors. Their horses were thoroughbreds in polished harnesses. These flashier Hansoms were sometimes referred to as "Gondolas of London" or "gondolas of the streets".
The cabs were widely used in the United Kingdom until 1908 when Taximeter Cars (petrol cabs) started to be introduced and were rapidly accepted; by the early 1920s horse-drawn cabs had largely been superseded by motor vehicles. The last licence for a horse-drawn cab in London was relinquished in 1947.[5]
A restored hansom cab once owned by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt is on display at the Remington Carriage Museum[6] in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. There is another surviving example, owned and operated by the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London; in common with other horse-drawn vehicles it is not permitted to enter any of the Royal Parks.[7] Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Leicestershire also have a restored Hansom cab.