The Cabmen's Cafes

摘要

In theory, each of the approximately twenty-five thousand licensed drivers of black taxicabs in London knows every street in the center of town. This familiarity is entirely possible, since getting a license—or, as it is commonly known, Passing the Knowledge—involves detailed recall of twenty-five thousand streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross Railway Station. The locations of clubs, hospitals, hotels, railway stations, parks, theaters, courts, restaurants, colleges, government buildings, and places of worship are similarly required. What most of these cabdrivers also know is the location of London's thirteen taxi shelters, their hours of operation, and their menus.