Can a MODERN Taxi Driver Recognise 90's London?
Vložit
- čas přidán 29. 06. 2023
- Go to nordvpn.com/tomthetaxidriver to get the two year plan with an exclusive deal PLUS 1 bonus month free! It’s risk free with NordVPN’s 30 day money back guarantee!
Original video source: • A drive through centra...
MY TAXI ESSENTIALS:
🚕 Everyday stuff - amzn.to/3kVr2MH
🎙 Audible Subscription - amzn.to/3LdYZTc
MY SKILLSHARE COURSE:
🎬 Getting Started with Final Cut Pro X - Beginner to CZcamsr - skl.sh/3ZB3ueV
Get a Free Trial HERE: skl.sh/3Zxthos
MY SET-UP:
🎥 Sony ZV-1 (studio camera) - amzn.to/3tz0Bxo
🎥 GoPro Hero 8 - amzn.to/3tyvCBz
💡Studio Lighting - amzn.to/3MS7O2s
💡Fill Light - amzn.to/3aWZJfv
🎙️ RØDE Video Mic Pro+ - amzn.to/3mGvsEj
🎙️ DJI Wireless Lav Microphone - amzn.to/3BFeOMH
CHECK ME OUT:
💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - www.tom.taxi/newsletter
🌍 My website - www.tom.taxi
📸 Instagram - / tomhutley
🐦 Twitter - / tomtaxidriver
📖 My Book - amzn.to/3gg0KSF
🏛 Tripadvisor Reviews - bit.ly/tataxireviews
MUSIC & SOUND FX USED:
🎵 Epidemic Sound - bit.ly/3LrQCDV
WHO AM I:
I’m Tom, a London Taxi driver of 5 years. I also have a keen passion for all things London whether that’s; history, geography or a good spot for coffee!
WHY DO I MAKE VIDEOS?:
To PROMOTE and PROTECT The Knowledge of London
And to PRESERVE the high standards of London Taxi Drivers - Zábava
Go to nordvpn.com/tomthetaxidriver to get the two year plan with an exclusive deal PLUS 1 bonus month free! It’s risk free with NordVPN’s 30 day money back guarantee!
The railings are gone because they encouraged drivers to speed, which increased road fatalities. PS: I have seen you complain about low traffic neighborhoods a lot, but a study from Donald Appleyard really will astonish you in how drastically car traffic adversely affects people. LTNs have also been shown to have quite dramatically lower crime rates, leading to resistance to their removal on the part of the Met Police. It is pretty fascinating stuff, and also really alarming when you think about how ubiquitous cars are given just how adversely their presence has been very clearly and firmly shown to cause and/or exacerbate a series of really quite serious problems to such a level (not saying you are to blame or that taxicabs are evil, but that is the reasoning behind many measures).
Also, older taxis are banned from London because changes in European exhaust emissions regulations have greatly tightened over the past decade and a half, and London's congestion and air pollution are serious enough to where that could really adversely affect air quality if they had no such policy in place, as inconvenient as it is. Cheers!
If you are wondering how the railing encouraged driver speeding, it is because they discouraged "jaywalking," which in turn boosted driver confidence.
That taxi is an Austin FX4. It was the mainstay of the fleet from the early 1960s until emissions and crash impact standards finally forced the design to be updated. After a series of updates, the final iteration of this design was the TX4. That's why it felt more like a classic car.
Crikey this makes me feel old. The cars, buses, adverts - all so familiar like it was yesterday. But at the time same, the grainy footage looks like a history documentary.
Love your channel by the way! I used to drive tourists around central London in classic minis for a living, so this is giving me my central London roads fix.
So that explains where the mini came from to get you up the A1 with Geoff!
Thank you so much for the amazing content, it's so incredibly dense and love reviewing it! Can't wait for the new episodes of Map Men and hope you didn't melt in the shed!
You should do a video if you can recognize London during that police escort of that "Police, Camera, Action!" episode "The Liver Run." That happened on 8 May 1987.
Most railings have been removed to reduce the risk of cyclists becoming trapped between the railings and a lorry. I’m a lorry driver and this was brought up on a cyclist awareness course.
That makes perfect sense! Thanks
On a purely statistical approach, isn't there now a bigger chance of vehicles straying off roads and hitting pedestrians? Seems counter-intuitive.
@@UrbanPicturesUK TfL did some research on it and found junctions became significantly safer when the railings were removed, so they have been removing a lot of them. The railings are not designed to stop cars, they are purely there to stop pedestrians crossing away from official crossings.
I wonder if you could even try and contact the driver of that metrocab, and see what its like to drive about, considering that now, iv seen those cab's in transport museums, have a chat with the driver, see how its lasted all these years and how the drive quality of it is vs your current car - might make a good bit of content
I agree I would love to see that.
Do more of these. This is towards back when I was a pushie (bicycle courier) armed with a clipboard for signatures and writing the details of the job, an A to Z for directions and an old school two way radio to speak to the controller. Way before smartphones and apps. You wouldn't get the job unless you could name the seven W1 squares, all the gates of the City and at least five detailed crosstown runs. A very light weight knowledge but now no one would care. 😅
I was a motorcycle courier in London from 1987-2001 and I have difficulty tracing my steps based on old and new. Lots of LTNs and cycle highways even Trafalgar Square no longer the island that it used to be for instance
You lot were fearless back then!!!😂
Tom I got my cab licence January 91 you could drive anywhere then I drove a B reg FX4 then bought a J reg fairway, the crossing on ludgate Hill was a nightmare people crossing nonstop and also the imax cinema south of Waterloo Bridge before it was built was the bullring you could look down and see only skate borders and tramps 😅
That first taxi you see is an Fairway Driver cab.
I had one of those 😊
Those cabs along with the routemaster symbolise the 70’s in London for me.
Yes Tom! Absolutely LOVE this video. As someone who grew up in London in the 90s I have so much nostalgia for that era and always really enjoy watching CZcams videos that show footage of how London was back then. I used to have an idealised memory of what it was like but actually London is now becoming nicer again with more pedestrianised areas, new Kings Cross development @ Granary Square/Coal Drop Yard and all those kind of places. Still hoping to see you in your cab out and about to hail you for a fare!
loved this! Would be great if there was some 80s footage or earlier to do the same thing with!
Home video recorders weren't really a thing in the 1980s, so footage would only exist if a TV or film studio did it.
Very nostalgic. I worked off High Holborn at this time. You can see where the MIrror building used to be and the new Sainsbury's HQ being constructed. I was half expecting to see myself walking along the road!
These were the days the traditional Hackneys and Routemaster buses. I seen one of those cabs in Nairobi plying it's trade as a taxi so as I crossed Moi Avenue I held out my arms and said to my wife "do you know what this is" we did managed to ride it to our hotel. What a beautiful trip back in memory lane and my wife was shocked that I told her that we're riding in a vintage London cab.
The music on the radio in that video was awesome, a real nostalgia trip when I saw it last year.
Loved this. Fascinating. Please do more (if there are any other similar drive-throughs of London from bygone eras!) PS: Sad to see so many nice old buildings torn down (but then similarily, some areas of London actually look much better now (inc Trafalgar Sq))
Saw the metro cab when I was down last month. Did wonder how it still managed to be allowed to drive! Pretty crazy that there is just one though?!
Nice video Tom! Will have to do 80s London next! ;-)
That was great, l passed out in 1982 and it brought back a lot of memories seeing London as it was. I loved driving the cab at that time and seeing this and how the road layouts were makes you realise how it's been ruined, l packed up in 2018 and l really don't envy cab drivers today. Be lucky out there.
God I'm old. I just remember when it was that a gallon 😂😂
1:44
It’s a Nissan Bluebird Tom.
2:02
FX4.
Nissan bluebird were the mini cab of choice. Haven’t seen one in years.
great video. serious nostalgia kicking in now.
its fun to see how the streets looked back then especially when I have just passed by most of these places earlier today
Great video as usual, good to see a guy who loves his home city so much, tbh I've a lot of respect for all London taxi drivers, it's a lot to learn and as the video shows streets, roundabouts etc always changing so 👍
I just had a look south park movie came out in June 1999, 24 years ago, back in time when it was free to get into London none of the stealth taxes like congestion charges and them camera things you mentioned
I’ve seen that exact metrocab twice in the Holborn area, it’s got an 05 reg
Great video. Not a Londoner but I absolutely love coming down to London. It actually amazes me each and every time.
Fantastic Tom! Could you do one about the 70’s which is more my era - the 90’s feel modern to me! I think it’s because of all these changes, that those of us who are a bit older try and seek out the areas which haven’t changed so much. The City of London has changed more than anywhere in my lifetime.
Camera sizes would be pretty shocking. See the blue Peter video somewhere of how they did camera cars ages ago. I'm surprised they could drive in 90s with a VCR / minivcr
@@m1ndy9876camcorders weren't too big
@@m1ndy9876 I remember in Formula One when they tried to give you the drivers view, and the picture kept breaking up. But we do have still photos that could be used to show the changes.
Great video Tom
That footage was great to see.
I lived in London from January 1995 until the summer of 1999. I used to play football near the Old Street roundabout on Friday evenings and I used to work near Bishopsgate too. We used to play five-a-side on Tuesdays in Bishopsgate where you pointed out an area on the left that is now all buildings (near Dirty Dicks).
I also remember Trafalgar Square being a roundabout, you could get a night bus from the north side of the square going north, and the roads being that wide around the bottom.
Great video, thanks Tom. My wife and I will be in London tomorrow for a few nights, I'll be watching taxis to see if I spot you!
I live near Russell square and it blew my mind seeing the change to it on streetview, I don't remember at all how it used to be!
It was a zany one-way gyratory for cars but with big traffic islands cut-through by bus and cycle lanes. Nowadays it seems to be mostly used as a place to park movie/TV production trailers...
Passed out in 95 just how I remember it driving an fx4 gave it up 5 years back would frighten me coming back now
The Pricing for the Petrol is in Gallons, not Litres. So 1 gallon is 4.5 litres roughly
Same of the old London taxi are Austin FX4
The first cab is an FX4 Also known as a Fairway. Made by LTi, the predecessor of LEVC It's why the TX1, TXII, TX4 and even your TXe is the shape it is.
I live 220~ miles north of London and I recognised that area at the start straight away, I used to deliver to a construction site for a new hotel which I belive was on Macclesfield Road. I used to go down that road several times a week then go straight out of London on the same road. Good times.
What a great piece of film. Brings back some great memories. I passed out on19th April 1993 and my first Saturday working was 24th the day of the Bishopsgate bombing. I can remember coming in down Whitechapel Road as it went off. The ring of steel was put in place soon after this. Keep up the good work Tom.
Love your channel ❤🚕
Petrol used to be just under NZ 0.91/L 91 Unleaded. After tomorrow, it could be over $2.40/L after the tax are added back on.
Brings back memories for me when I was working in the City!
Enjoyed this 😀
I still have the same job I started back in 92. As an engineer I cover the city on foot. Trust me, even back then trying to navigate the streets you usually walked in a car was a mare ! So many turns you couldn't take. This clip is a great reminder.
I used to drive from Eltham to Marylebone High St on Sunday mornings, trust me 15 minutes no problem !
( No cameras, two lanes up Shoredtich etc.)
Happy days !
Tom, any chance of running that route in the cab and filming it so you can show a side-by-side comparison?
The London Overground Bridge at Shoreditch High Street came about in 2010 onwards. In fact, The whole East London Line came around in 2010.
There was an East London line in the 90s but it terminated at Shoreditch and was part of the Underground. The modern bridge connects the old Broad Street branch of the North London line with the East London line allowing East London line trains to go all the way up to Dalston Junction and Highbury & Islington.
Funny how you mentioned the cars parked just before Old Street Roundabout. That pisses me off every day as all the traffic has to pull in to 1 lane and causes the Qs. Clearly it’s been a problem since the 90s. Only difference is now we are stuck at 2 sets of lights at Old St. 😡
Brings back a lot of memories for me them streets back then!!
The 90s where great I feel blessed to have been in and around back then 👌🏻
really enjoyed it. i remember driving around there in 1996. was a different time
1st taxi you/we saw was a fairway mate…fantastic video as always Tom
I have watched this video - it was filmed in 1999; I have also watched other videos (other transport related videos) showing other areas of London also from the 1990s also at 18:15 you could still drive around Trafalgar Square up until 2001/2002 when it was changed to its current layout
That would've been when there was the old Shoreditch station on the London Underground East London Line!
Thank you for reacting to this 👍
You should try to recreate this video one day 😊
Wish i was a teen in the late 90s honestly, i could have whitnesed top gear first hand, i could have seen people driving around in cars that where not garbage, missed out on so much.
Used to park on Waterloo bridge after 830 and walk down to get a tea from the tea hut
Look at how nice the traffic flow is 😮
Overground bridge on Shoredich high st was built in 2010 to extend the old east london line from Whitechapel to highbury & Islington ...Thanks Tom for the upload .
Shows how new I am to London, in my mind it’s always been there 🤪 but then again probably first time I explored London was probably 2011/2012
@@TomtheTaxiDriver Just before the Olympics, London took on big building projects that transformed its landscape !!! Feels like a distant memory now, again thanks for the brilliant chanel 😉
The Shoreditch ‘triangle’ was a gyratory when I started in 2003. It just worked. Like Aldgate.
Liverpool st was one way to Blomfield, the point of the rank was quite a distance west on where it is now, and you had to leave it eastbound. Again, it worked with little hold ups. You could use Finsbury Circus to Moorgate too
I really like this idea - could you do one for every decade going back that would be awesome
Really liked this and played the game of trying to predict what it would like ahead of the video. Clearly remember Trafalgar Square with north side and doesn’t seem like 20 years ago. Biggest shock was One New Change and I worked in St Martins Grand in 1981 to 1983.
love your tattoos tom. Have you ever considered discussing the meaning of some of them.
I made that video here 😊 czcams.com/video/TpLIJt6WJSY/video.html
@@TomtheTaxiDriver thanks!
Going on the petrol prices on City road, I'd say this video was made around 1997/98 (The Ford Focus confirms the year of this video, 1999 T plate was first registered in March of that year) and Great Eastern Street was one way street, that's why you had to follow traffic onto Old Street towards Hackney road. Old Street roundabout on the old layout was much better, traffic flowed very well. In January I was just stuck in traffic and I asked a worker on the roundabout when they were going to complete works, he just laughed as they've made a complete mess of that area due to making that silly redesign. At 7:53 Today, to make that right turn in to Great Eastern street you had have to be lane the camera car is in. Now you have oncoming traffic from bishops gate in that lane they were in.
Also this videos shows, TFL have messed up London so much, So many lanes reduced and they claim there's more traffic.
The video is from the very late 90s early 00 as some of the buildings shown in Bishopsgate were not built until then, I know as I worked on them.
Hi Tom
Cool video as always
Just wondering there are some cool videos out there of London in the 1900’s could you do a video on those as well?
And remember Charing Cross Station feeder in the middle of Strand 😂😂
Everything looks a lot quicker the only really constricted road was the security narrows to the city everywhere else more lanes, higher speeds, more alternative routes
I watched this video he's taken the clips from 6 or so months ago. As someone who is 40 this year it was so nostalgic to me. The radio is on in the car. So the music and cars were fantastic. I urge everyone to watch it. An amazing time capsule into the recent past
I'm 40 and I hadnt heard some of those songs in ages. 99 was also my first London trip so was pure nostaligia
@D_B_Cooper we probably watched it with similar thoughts lol.
Are you the guy from Prison Break ?
@@ryanessex7978 I had to google prison break haha... I see they based a character on the real life hijacker who Ive always used as a username 😅
@@D_B_Cooper if you've never watched it, watch it. Absolutely brilliant series.
The 90s were the best years growing up
Well it’s not like there was much of a choice 😂
1:51 is a Nissan Bluebird, predecessor for the Primera, which itself is out of production for some time now.
We were kings back then and life was good. I drove through all the changes and none have benefited the cab trade. I still have immense pride for the badge and the profession and do feel that outside forces have conspired against the trade deliberately for many reasons.
Enjoying your videos and positivity. Nice one 👍
Y Food is the bollocks - the shop in Scott Ellis Gardens need the other flavours
As a fellow london cabbie one thing that struck me was how fast you could go! 20mph everywhere you go in London now. Also, the traffic seemed to flow better, the traffic lights seemed to go green quicker - now there's far more time for pedestrians to cross. Obviously, less bus lanes and more road space meant vehicles could get about faster.
The car is the enemy these days
Well there are over 50% more private cars on our roads than there were in the 1990s. Luckily we haven't knocked down half of London to build 50% more roads so unfortunately there is more congestion thus people have to move around in more efficient ways
Population of London was 6.7m in 1990, it is 8.9m now.
FYI Tom. Gt eastern st from bishopsgate into the station / hotel was 1 way.
very interesting.tom.
This is fascinating - and interesting than that, just so recently, drivers are expected to work out which part of the road they would be on depending upon where they were going.
Nowadays that’s absolutely not allowed and one is directed so precisely as if on the continent.
i love watching london-based films from the 1970s and 80s and seeing if i can recognise the locations. the sweeney films are good for that (and any "euston films" production) and 80s episodes of "minder" (generally filmed in wandsworth, putney & roehampton). it looks so quaint and nice but at the time they probably thought it looked very modern like we think of london in 2023. makes me wonder what it will look like in another 30 years to make today's london look quaint
Same here Tony - I love watching TV shows that were filmed on location in London in the 1970s & 80s like Minder and Danger UXB. You'd love "The Long Good Friday" with Bob Hoskins, superb scenery of London Docklands in the 80s.
@@howdan1985 haha yes! good call m8. i just saw the long good friday and loved the location shots. amazing. also a TV series called "prospects" about docklands in the 80s before it turned into a sterile disneyland
@@tonyclifton265 Cheers for the recommendation mate, I'll check out "Prospects" - sounds superb! "Sterile Disneyland" you're spot on there my friend😂
When I worked at the Shell Building in ‘96 our fire evacuation point was where the London Eye would eventually be put. Interestingly I got married on the London Eye
You should drive the same routine as a side by side to show the comparisons you spoke of
90s when the knowledge of London was a must and came in to its own . Before mobile phones and sat navigation . And Google maps. Taxi drivers had to rely on the knowledge 100% unlike today with post codes and checking routes on the phones . When ducking snd diving was a skill using the back doubles. That have all gone now
13:07 in areas with a lot of pedestrians like seen in that clip I would prefer a traffic light! There's a very tiny number of crossings in London where I can get stuck just because of the constant flow of people. I'll rather the traffic light forces them to stop and the vehicles to move. 😆
Would've been nice to see maybe a street view picture of the same locations nowadays to visually compare them! Otherwise great vid
@TomtheTaxiDriver the car is a Nissan Bluebird.
Top content
Ah, memories! 🥰
I remember driving round the north side of Trafalgar Square!!! And I remember being peed off when they made it the way it is now.
was bust all day on charing x
Blimey, I literally travelled around central London in a Black Cab in the 1990s with a Tom The Taxi Driver nearly every day. This makes me feel so old. Having left London 20 years ago I am now going back to work there in the centre and everything has changed. I will be lost.
In fact, I worked with a man in a financial services job who had done 'the knowledge' as still did drive on a Saturday using his father's taxi just to keep his knowledge fresh. I asked him why and he said it was his backstop if he ever lost his job.
If this was the 99s it was very late 99's as one of the buses seen was a very early ALX400 most likely still with the old Alexander badging before transbus came in
Hey Tom. I do this all the time I love trying to guess old places. I was watching a clip of when seat belts was made compulsory in the 70s I think and people were being interviewed about it on the Western avenue from gypsy corner to Savoy circus and you can see the old pub and bingo hall at Savoy circus I'll try and send you the link. Also what MacBook do you have Tom
I remember watching that clip! Was brilliant how defiant some were to it!
I can’t believe how different Shoreditch is now
“If it’s Hollywood or Bishopsgate”
In 93 I was driving hgv1 lorrys and many of nights I would park up for the night just about 2 to 3 streets away from Big Ben don’t know the name of the street but London was so different back then and not just London all over the uk was so much different you can’t even drive a hgv1 in London after a certain time of night now it was fun to be a driver back then I am a taxi driver now in Bridgend south Wales 🏴 also no speed cameras 🎥 everywhere but I only was saying the other day to one of my passenger it’s no fun driving anymore and in Wales from September the 17th all or most of the roads are going 20 mph that’s going to be a nightmare
Wasn’t great eastern st one way then
1:40 1983-1992 Nissan Bluebird
There was a bridge over Shoreditch High Street, but it was an old Victorian one. That was thrown out of line by Second World War bombing and never used since the blitz. Until the recent one that is there now was installed one Sunday morning, with what was at the time apparently the biggest crane in Europe. Where box park is now was prevented from development for decades by protesters trying to save an old victorian wall. However the protestors did not live in the area, the locals did not support them because it was an eyesore. Eventually the high court gave a ruling that development could take place and a large part of the old goods yard was allowed to be developed. Only small bits of the old wall are still there.
Statistically railings make people drive less safely, they give drivers a false sense of security resulting in dangerous driving
Nice!
Oooh, whats the map behind you - looks similar to one I have in style terms from mid to late 30's
1927 London 😊
Another great video, Tom, but the sound isn't as good as it usually is.
Tom the taxi was a austin fx4 taxi
11:00 I guess depending on the time of day this was filmed, people might be out on their lunch and have left their bags in their offices?
Bus 505 route has been suspended
Was the building on new change a Bank of England building