Kate Hawkesby: A chat with a London cabbie

Had a great chat with a London cabbie yesterday. I love how knowledgeable they are about everything, and they’re super chatty and friendly. It’s a Bank holiday here tomorrow —Monday here our time— then of course they get another Bank holiday the following Monday for the Coronation, so they’re drowning in long weekends here at the moment. I asked him if that meant everything would be shut, no he said, everything stays open just like any other day – in fact he said the only day you will find everything closed in London is Easter Sunday. I asked about whether the huge volume of people in town was unusual or whether London was just this busy these days. I‘m trying to work out if this is an influx for the Coronation, or if I’m just not used to this many people everywhere all the time, but it’s definitely busier than we were last here, which was Harry and Meghan’s wedding. He said it’s definitely busier, they’ve had an influx last week for the London marathon – which was the day we arrived, and it was heaving. Then this week is the Coronation – another influx, then after that it’s the Chelsea flower show, which he reckoned would be the busiest of all. So the place is flooded with people and getting more so. Great business for the cabbies and the hotels. I asked him why the London cabbies famously don’t work in the rain. He said it’s two fold. One, because they have a daily target and if it’s raining way more people use cabs so they hit their targets early then knock off… so there are fewer on the road. And two, because London is a tube and train town, but in the rain, everyone wants a black cab because they want to go door to door, but the Ubers have surge pricing, so the cabs are all snapped up. Which is true, the other night it was pouring and I was trying organize a cab home for Mike who finishes at 10pm our time —when cabs are few and far between anyway— and I couldn’t even book one on the taxi app, there just were none available, so I tried an Uber. Surge pricing, at 10pm. It was 5 times the cost of usually getting home. So an eleven pound ride was 55 pounds all of a sudden. So you can see why the taxis are in such high demand. Anyway he was saying they’ve gone all out for this coronation. They’re double barricading – so the barricades everywhere to keep the public back off the streets and segregated from the Abbey, and the Mall, and the Palace, etc are already being erected, but they’re doubling it this time round, which means one barricade for public, then another line for Police and military to stand behind. So there’ll be two layers of security between the public and event pageantry. Six thousand military personnel he said are being deployed to guard and monitor the whole thing, flags are all up on the main streets, and even along the Mall, on every lamppost they’ve put up not only a flag but screwed little ceremonial crowns on top too. Huge amount of effort has gone in to making London sparkle for the event. Anyway he gave me the top tip that roads will be closed Tuesday for a full rehearsal, so I’ll be keeping my beady eyes out for that. The excitement here’s definitely building. They love their pomp and ceremony and they’re proud... even the ones who aren’t necessarily big fans of the Royals, they’re proud of how London puts on a show and they’re made us so welcome, they’re thrilled to have all the tourists in town.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.