Taxi club clocks up 40 years
A club for classic taxis is marking its 40th anniversary with a major event – and is appealing for anyone with a classic cab to join in.
Taxis will take part in a treasure hunt in London before crossing the capital to the show’s main venue, the RAF Museum at Hendon. It’s also hoped to give visitors mystery tours by taxi, though final details are still being worked out for the event, scheduled for 8 July.
London Vintage Taxi Association (LVTA) members will be travelling from all across the world for the event, with a classic Beardmore cab coming from Austria.
‘This is going to be a great event with some extremely rare taxis,’ says spokesman, Gary Sylberszac. Around 50 London cabs are expected, from a 1910 Unic to the latest 2018 technology of the Zero Emission Capable TXe City cab – an uninterrupted line of taxi motoring spanning nearly 110 years.
The LVTA was formed in 1978 when Bill Bourne, who owned a decommissioned Austin FX3 taxi, registration UYH 317, placed an advert in Exchange and
Mart asking if there were any other taxi enthusiasts out there.
The result was a meeting at the Sherlock Holmes pub, just off Trafalgar Square, on 13 February 1978, at which the LVTA was formed.
Today there are some 400 members including a sizeable north American, contingent.