Before the 1650's the cheap London taxis were known as hackneys or hackney carriages. They were automobiles that were for hire and affordable only to the high class citizens. Even today, the term hackney carriage is synonymous with the taxicab that is the property of the Public Carriage Office in Greater London, Great Britain and the Department of Environment in North Ireland.
In the 19th century, private carriages were sold to be used as hackney carriages which were coaches for hire complete with the driver. As the previous owner had their respective coat of arms painted on the doors, these were painted over, usually in black. The type of carriage known as the growler was a four wheel carriage with an enclosed roof drawn by two horses. These were adopted into hackney carriages. The type known as a hansom or a cabriolet cab was distinguished from hackneys as they were composed of two wheels.Originally the cabs that are used in the UK, including London Airport cars were painted in black when they were first introduced as motorized taxis. Although London Airport Transfer systems depend on shuttle buses today, you can hire London Airport cars if you so desire.
Although the cabs were black traditionally, today you can find taxis painted in various colours and at times they are used as advertising billboards. During the Queen's Golden Jubilee, fifty cabs were produced and painted golden. This was in the year 2002.
You can hire hackney cabs today when you arrive at the London Airport Transfer. Taking a Gatwick Airport Taxi will also provide you with styled motorized hackney cabs but they will cost sufficiently more than taking the shuttle.
Areas of Greater London, including the Gatwick Airport Taxis have been replaced by upgraded electric taxi cabs proposed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson on the 14th of December 2010 releasing a fund of over One Million Pounds to lower emissions from vehicles. Electric car subsidies were given up to Five Thousand Pounds according to the Transport Ministry and Minister Phillip Hammond.
In 2011, hackney carriages found themselves being digitized by the introduction of smart phone integration using applications such as Get Taxi and Uber for payment and tracking of the taxis. Through this digitization, it has become easier for Heathrow airport taxi to navigate the complicated streets of London in both inner and Greater London. However, taxi drivers who are famous worldwide for their amazing ability to know and navigate through the streets of London claim that their way of life has been threatened. Today's GPS systems and smart phone based tracking devices have rendered these taxi drivers obsolete despite the fact that they have been studied by scientists who claim that their hippo campuses are larger than the average human being's and may provide interesting findings towards memory improvement.
