All Hail The London Cab

By Rob Last edited 216 months ago
All Hail The London Cab

Harry Beck's London Underground may have lost out to 'old big nose' in the Great British Design Quest but fear not London, for we have the black cab, and the black cab has just become the greatest British automotive design icon as voted for by the incredibly discerning readers of Auto Trader magazine.

The black cab's nearest competior was the humble Mini which received 18% of the vote, but with the black cab receiving a whopping 42% of the votes there was never any danger of the old classic losing out.

LTI Vehicles in Coventry, who manufacture the London Taxi, are quoted as saying:

We're delighted that the black cab has been chosen as the top British Design Icon. Once again, it reinforces the iconic status that the black cab holds.

The rest of the British automotive design top 10 goes like this:

3. Aston Martin DB5 14%

4. Land Rover Defender 11%

5. Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 6%

6. Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy 3%

7. Roundabouts 1%

Joint eighth place was shared by the Docklands Traffic Light sculpture (!), Road signage, and the M1 as they all received zero votes. Can't think why.

For more London Taxi stuff go here, to take a tour of London in a taxi go here, to buy a taxi go here and for pictures of taxis go here.

Our photo of a white cab is from the Flickr stream of A close-up.

Last Updated 17 March 2006