Everyone’s talking about... The Knowledge
No, not the online newsletter behind The Mail on Sunday’s new ‘five things we learned this week’ feature (see Page 39), but the demanding test of London’s roads that all black cab drivers must pass. Why is it in the news?
Because free market think-tank The Adam Smith Institute has called for it to be scrapped in the era of GPS and satnavs, saying it costs drivers ‘thousands of pounds and years of their life for a skill which is largely obsolete’. But Steve McNamara of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association decried a ‘race to the bottom’, saying: ‘A satnav is no substitute for a professional driver’s knowledge and experience.’ Studies show black cabs are, on average, faster than Ubers using GPS.
What do the drivers have to memorise?
The 25,000 streets and 100,000 points of interest, such as hotels and restaurants, within six miles of Charing Cross. Potential cabbies must learn 320 routes, or ‘runs’, listed in the notorious Blue Book. They make a series of ‘appearances’ in which examiners ask them to ‘call over’ four sample runs before they can advance. You cannot fail the Knowledge, only give up. Few examiners are as sadistic as the one played by Nigel Hawthorne in Jack Rosenthal’s 1979 TV play The Knowledge, but still around 70 per cent of applicants drop out.
What’s the history?
It was introduced in 1865, four years after the Great Exhibition, when a huge number of visitors reportedly complained that Hansom cab drivers didn’t know the route.
How on earth does anyone learn it?
It has been called the world’s hardest test of any kind. Transport for London advises: ‘You cannot learn the Knowledge from a book or a map’ – you have to take to the streets. So-called Knowledge Boys and Girls practise runs on mopeds, normally in pairs. It typically takes three years and 8,000 hours of all-consuming study. Scientists say the Knowledge increases the grey matter in the hippocampus, the part of the brain used for learning, but possibly at the expense of shortterm memory. Each year about 1,000 drivers pass, earning their coveted green badge and the right to ask: ‘Where to, guv?’