View source for Hansom cab

{{Short description|Horse-drawn vehicle for hire}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Redirect|Hansom|the surname|Hansom (surname)}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2010}}
[[File:HansomCab.jpg|thumb|Hansom cab and driver in the 2004 movie ''[[Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking]]'', set in 1903 London]]
[[File:Hansom cab 1904.jpg|thumb|Hansom cab, London, 1904]]
[[File:London Cabmen.jpg|thumb|London Cabmen, 1877]]
The '''hansom cab''' is a kind of horse-drawn [[carriage]] designed and patented in 1834 by [[Joseph Hansom]], an [[architect]] from [[York]].{{r|dictionary|page=30}} The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in [[Hinckley]], [[Leicestershire]], [[England]].<ref name="hinckley">{{cite web |url=https://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/hansomcab.html |title=The Hansom Cab was designed, patented and tested in Hinckley |website=Hinckley Past & Present |access-date=July 26, 2017 |archive-date=May 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524215117/http://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/hansomcab.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Originally called the '''Hansom safety cab''', it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low centre of gravity for safe cornering.  Hansom's original design was modified by [[John Chapman (carriage maker)|John Chapman]] and several others to improve its practicability, but retained Hansom's name.<ref>{{cite book |first=Penelope |last=Harris |title=The Architectural Achievement of Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882), Designer of the Hansom Cab, Birmingham Town Hall, and Churches of the Catholic Revival |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |year=2010 |pages=86–91, 93 |ol=24585797M |isbn=9780773438514}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/josephhansom.html |title=The life of Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882) |website=Hinckley Past & Present |access-date=July 26, 2017 |archive-date=April 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417061934/http://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/josephhansom.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
''Cab'' is a shortening of ''[[Cabriolet (carriage)|cabriolet]]'', reflecting the design of the carriage.  It replaced the [[hackney carriage]] as a [[vehicle for hire]]; with the introduction of clockwork mechanical [[taximeter]]s 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 vehicle]]s in the notorious traffic jams of nineteenth-century London. There were up to 7500 hansom cabs in use at the height of their popularity and they quickly spread to other cities in the United Kingdom (including Ireland), as well as continental European cities, particularly [[Paris]], [[Berlin]], and [[St Petersburg]]. The cab was introduced to other British Empire cities and to the United States during the late 19th century, being most commonly used in [[New York City]].
== Design ==
[[File:Hansom cab, unusual find in a mews.jpg|thumb|Hansom cab, showing low easy entry, trap door on top, and folding doors to protect passengers from weather and mud]]
The cab, a type of ''[[fly (carriage)|fly]]'', sat two passengers (three if they squeezed in) and a driver who sat on a sprung seat behind the vehicle. The passengers could give their instructions to the driver through a [[trap door]] near the rear of the roof. They could pay the driver through the hatch, and he would then operate a lever to release the doors so that they could alight. In some cabs, the driver could operate a device that balanced the cab and reduced strain on the horse. The passengers were protected from the elements by the cab and by folding wooden doors that enclosed their feet and legs and thus protected their clothes from splashing mud. Later versions also had an up-and-over glass window above the doors to complete the enclosure of the passengers. Additionally, a curved [[fender (automobile)|fender]] mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the hooves of the horse.
{{blockquote |text=Its main features were low-slung bodywork, high wheels and a rearward driving seat — the latter not at first evident. The purpose of its design was to combine speed with safety, having a low centre of gravity, essential for safe cornering and overtaking. Wheels were originally 7'6" in diameter, later becoming much smaller although still large in proportion. The dashboard was curved at the rear of the shafts, bringing the hind-quarters of the horse fairly near the vehicle, for better control. There would be room for two passengers facing forward, on a single cross-seat, their legs protected by knee flaps.{{r|dictionary|page=30}} }}
Other vehicles similar to the Hansom cab include the American light trade cart for deliveries such as bread, the bow-fronted hansom which was fully enclosed and entered through a side door, and the Brougham Hansom which was entered from the rear and driven from a seat on the fore-part of the roof.{{r|dictionary|pages=5,23,31}}
== Hansom Cab Company ==
[[File:Street types of New York City- Hansom driver standing in front of horse and cab LCCN2002699101.jpg|thumb|New York City, 1896]]
The Hansom Cab Company was established in May 1869 to provide transportation in New York City and Brooklyn. The business was located at 133 Water Street, Brooklyn; [[Duncan, Sherman & Company]] handled the books of subscription (initial offers of stock to capitalize a new company). The enterprise was organized by Ed W. Brandon who became its president. Two orders for a fleet of cabs were sent to carriage makers in New York City. 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. By time, $0.75 for one person for an hour or portion thereof, $1.00 for two persons.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Hansom Cab Company |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=May 27, 1869 |at=Page 5, columns 5–6. |via=[[Newspaperarchive.com]]}}</ref>
== United Kingdom ==
[[File:Temple Underground station 1899.jpg|thumb|London, 1899]]
Two [[English peer]]s who owned cab companies, [[Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury#Hansom cabs de luxe|Lord Shrewsbury]] and [[Lancelot Lowther, 6th Earl of Lonsdale|Lord Lonsdale]], raised the standards of all Hansom cabs in London when they purchased upgraded cabs made by Forder, complete with brass fittings, quiet-running rubber tires, and luxuriously fitted interiors. Their horses were thoroughbreds in polished harnesses.{{r|walrond}} These flashier Hansoms were sometimes referred to as "Gondolas of London" or "gondolas of the streets".{{r|walrond}}{{r|dictionary|page=87}}
The cabs were widely used in the United Kingdom until 1908 when [[Taximeter]] Cars (petrol cabs) started to be introduced and were rapidly accepted; by the early 1920s horse-drawn cabs had largely been superseded by motor vehicles. The last licence for a horse-drawn cab in London was relinquished in 1947.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gregory |last=Drozdz |title=Cab and Coach |year=1990 |page=26 |oclc=841903541}}</ref>
== Museums ==
A restored hansom cab once owned by [[Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt]] is on display at the [[Remington Carriage Museum]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.remingtoncarriagemuseum.com/tour8.html#8Famous |title=Remington Carriage Museum website |publisher=Remingtoncarriagemuseum.com |access-date=2014-08-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128121145/http://www.remingtoncarriagemuseum.com/tour8.html |archive-date=January 28, 2010}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/news/james-purnell.html |title=Correspondence between the Sherlock Holmes Museum and James Purnell MP, The Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306183119/http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/news/james-purnell.html |archive-date=March 6, 2008 |website=[[Sherlock Holmes Museum]]}}</ref> Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Leicestershire also have a restored Hansom cab.
== In popular culture ==
<!--Do not add casual mentions, only works which are ABOUT Hansom cabs-->
[[File:France in XXI Century. Air cab.jpg|thumb|Air cabs - hansom cabs of the (then) future, depicted in [[En L'An 2000]] illustrated by Jean-Marc Côté]]
* In ''[[Black Beauty]]'' by [[Anna Sewell]], the central section has an evocative account of life as a Hansom cab driver in Victorian London, even though it is written from the point of view of the horse.
* "[[The Adventure of the Hansom Cab]]" is the third and final story in [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[The Suicide Club (Stevenson)|The Suicide Club]]'' cycle (1878). Retired British soldier Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich is beckoned into the back of an elegantly appointed hansom by a mysterious cabman who whisks him off to a party.
* In 1886, [[Fergus Hume]] published his novel ''[[The Mystery of a Hansom Cab]]'', set in post-[[Victorian gold rush|Gold Rush]] era [[Melbourne]], Australia. The story was filmed in Australia in 1911, under the same title. A movie was made for TV in 2012.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4223 |first=Fergus |last=Hume |title=The Mystery of a Hansom Cab |via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |ol=21631914M}}</ref>
* The 1889 film ''[[Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses]]'', photographed by [[William Friese-Greene]], shows Londoners walking along Apsley Gate, [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], with horse-drawn conveyances passing by.
* The book ''Farewell Victoria'' (1933) by [[T. H. White]] has the protagonist ending his days as a hansom cab operator in its fading years, which is part of the sustained metaphor brought out in the title.
== See also ==
* [[Cabmen's Shelter Fund]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|30em |refs=
<ref name="dictionary">{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles |first=D.J.M. |last=Smith |year=1988 |isbn=0851314686 |ol=11597864M}}</ref>
<ref name="walrond">{{cite book |title=Looking at Carriages |first=Sallie |last=Walrond |year=1992 |isbn=0720712823 |ol=3828623M |pages=196–198}}</ref>
}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |title=Carriage Terminology: An Historical Dictionary |first=Donald H. |last=Berkebile |year=1979 |isbn=0874741661}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.carriageassociationofamerica.com/coson-carriage-tour/livery-driven-vehicles/ |title=Livery Driven Vehicles – Coson Carriage Tour |website=[[Carriage Association of America]]}}
== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071217083534/http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_33.html America on the Move | Hansom Cab.] National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
* {{cite web |url=http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/society/hansom-cab.html |title=The Hansom Cab of the Sherlock Holmes Museum, London |website=Sherlock Holmes International Society |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630145058/http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk:80/society/hansom-cab.html |archive-date=June 30, 2020}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080821203713/http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/Hansom_pages/HansomCabs.html Hansom Cabs] Sherlock Peoria.
* {{cite web|last=King|first=Laurie R.|title=A Monstrous Regiment of Women excerpt|url=http://www.laurierking.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/monstrous-regiment-excerpt.pdf|access-date=14 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424122912/http://www.laurierking.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/monstrous-regiment-excerpt.pdf|archive-date=24 April 2013|url-status=dead|date=1995}}Official website for Laurie R. King; features a cab-driving scene.
* [http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/victorian/joseph-aloysius-hansom Joseph Aloysius Hansom] (History of York)
{{Horse-drawn carriages}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansom Cab}}
[[Category:Carriages]]
[[Category:English inventions]]
[[Category:Taxi vehicles]]
[[Category:Vehicles introduced in 1834]]