Hansom cab

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.

Additionally, a curved fender mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the hooves of the horse.

The purpose of its design was to combine speed with safety, having a low centre of gravity, essential for safe cornering and overtaking.

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.

[7] A restored hansom cab once owned by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt is on display at the Remington Carriage Museum[8] 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.