Black Cab Manners for Two

Reading the light

A black cab shows an orange TAXI sign lit on its roof when it is free to hail and dark when it already has a fare, which is the entire signal system and worth knowing before standing on a corner waving at an occupied car. Raising a hand at hip height, rather than a full overhead wave, is enough to be seen, and a cab will usually pull in within a few seconds of being flagged if the street allows it.

Kensington Gore and the main roads around the museums tend to have a steadier flow of cabs than the smaller residential streets behind them, so walking towards one of the wider roads before trying to hail often beats waiting on a quiet corner and hoping.

A cab rank, where one exists, is worth using over hailing on the street whenever the two are close together, since a queue of cabs waiting at a rank moves faster than a single car passing by chance, particularly late in the evening when fewer are on the road.

Who goes first

There is no fixed rule inside a cab the way there might be at a restaurant table, but the easy convention is that whoever is holding the door lets the other person step in first, then follows and pulls the door shut properly, since older cabs need a firmer close than the average car door. Once inside, the wider bench seat and drop-down seats facing it mean there is no awkward negotiation over who sits where, and most couples end up side by side rather than facing each other for a short journey.

None of this needs discussing out loud. A small pause and a gesture toward the open door says everything that needs saying, and any driver watching from the front will barely register it either way.

The same courtesy applies at the other end of the journey: stepping out first to hold the door, rather than climbing out and leaving it for the other person to manage, closes the small loop the gesture started with when the cab was first boarded.

The address, not the postcode

London's black cab drivers train for years in a system known as the Knowledge, memorising the layout of the city street by street rather than relying on satellite navigation, and the practical effect is that most drivers respond better to a landmark or a named building than a postcode read out cold. Naming the hotel directly, rather than its street number, usually gets a faster nod of recognition, particularly around South Kensington and Chelsea where the driver has likely made the same run a hundred times before.

If a hotel's exact entrance is easy to miss, saying so before the cab pulls away, rather than after it has already turned the corner, saves circling the block unnecessarily.

For a residence rather than a hotel, naming the nearest well known corner or landmark alongside the street name tends to help just as much, since even the most experienced driver benefits from a second point of reference on a quieter street.

Settling the fare

Most black cabs now take contactless and card payment as readily as cash, so there is rarely a need to plan ahead for exact change the way an older visitor to London might remember having to. Rounding up to the nearest pound or two is the ordinary custom rather than a fixed percentage, and no driver expects more than that as a matter of course.

Settling the fare from the near-side seat, rather than passing money forward while still half out of the cab, keeps the moment brisk, and a driver pulling up outside a hotel is generally used to a fare paid quickly by whoever is nearest the window.

Whoever offers to pay first is generally left to, without a show made of it either way. A cab fare rarely needs the back and forth that a restaurant bill sometimes does, since the amount is small enough that neither person usually minds either way.

Rain, cases and evening dress

A black cab's high roof and wide rear doors were built with exactly this kind of evening in mind, room enough for a case, a coat and evening dress without the awkward folding a lower saloon car often demands. On a wet night, the driver stepping out to hold an umbrella over a departing passenger is common courtesy rather than an unusual gesture, and it is entirely reasonable to wait a moment for it rather than dash out into the rain.

This is also the one point worth remembering about black cabs specifically over any other kind of car service: the space inside was designed for exactly the kind of evening dress and luggage this site's guests tend to travel with, which is not something every ride-hailing car can promise.

A cab as part of the evening

For a hotel visit that starts somewhere other than the hotel itself, dinner nearby or a bar first, the short cab ride between the two becomes part of the evening rather than a logistical afterthought, five or ten minutes of conversation that most couples remember more fondly than the wait for it. Kensington and the streets around it are short enough distances that a cab ride rarely runs long, which keeps this part of the evening feeling like a pause rather than a journey.

The booking itself follows the usual pattern regardless of how you arrive, a name and address confirmed over WhatsApp and a quarter of the fee held by bank transfer, with every length and figure on the rates page.

A short ride shared this way often sets the tone for the rest of the evening more than either person expects, five minutes of easy conversation doing more to settle any first-meeting nerves than a longer wait ever would.

Companions who travel easily

Nancy treats a cab ride as an extension of the conversation rather than a break from it, easy company for the five minutes between one address and the next, filed among the site's curvaceous companions. Tina, small in stature and entirely unbothered by the older cabs' narrower doors, keeps the same confident, unhurried manner whether the journey is five minutes or twenty five, one of the petite companions in the collection. Either makes even the short ride between two addresses feel like part of the date rather than an interruption to it.

Neither treats the journey as dead time to be waited out, which is a small thing but noticeable on an evening where every part is meant to feel considered rather than merely endured.