Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Why Manor House holds a Special Place in the Heart of every London Cabbie
Manor House holds a special place in the heart of every London cabbie.
Fascinating fact of the day: Out of over 25,000 streets and 400 routes an apprentice black cabbie must learn, the very first route in the blue book is Manor House Station to Gibson Square. This ensures that it is a route that will always remain engraved on the memory of every cabbie.
What's perhaps more interesting than the local connection is the findings of a recent study at the department of neurology at University College. This research showed showed that the posterior hippocampi of a group of London taxi drivers was significantly larger than that of the general population. Dr Eleanor Macguire, the senior research fellow who conducted the experiment, says that there could be a number of explanations but all of them add up to the fact that this part of a taxi driver's brain grows while doing the Knowledge.
So, with all the se super developed cabbie brains around and with our neighbourhood being so firmly engraved on their minds, there should never be any excuse for a cabbie not knowing the quickest route to your home!
Link: Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers
Tags for Forum Posts: history of harringay, manor house / woodberry down
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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OK- best cabbie story everyone? I sometimes spent time in cabs when I was travelling with work and arrived back in the UK at 4am. I used to get a cab from Paddington about 6 to get home. I would usually chat with the cabbie, asking them what time they started or their most famous passengers and what they thought of them (two mentioned Chris Tarrant- neither had anything good to say...).
I get into one cab and start chatting, it must have been about the time of the last general election. The guy starts turning into some militant 1980's style Trotsky-ite. We get to my house and he is still going, and mid-stream about having written a song for the election, we pull up outside my house (6.30, I've been away for 2 weeks, on the road for nearly 24 hours, I am dirty, smelly, tired and 7 time zones out). He turns his engine off, and turns around (why are you turning around?), continuing to chat... (Ahhhhhhhhr!). I wanted to say "Shut Up!", but being English I politely listened as he finished... we were there a while.
I was so traumatised afterwards I mentioned him to a few other cabbies. To a man they all laughed and said "Oh, him- he's notorious!"...
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Permalink Reply by Arthur Astrop on
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Am I right in recalling that the first winner of TV's Mastermind was a cabbie? Name of Housego?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Not sure whether or not he was the first, but yes, I remember Fred Housego winning MM.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Yes indeed - great guy. He had a broadcasting career afterwards and had a regular slot on LBC, but seems to have gone into retirement/hiding now sadly. I miss his shows!
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Permalink Reply by EMC2 on
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Talking about local tubes, this is an interesting read http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/f/finsbury_park/index.shtml
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Permalink Reply by Richard Woods on
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Back in the 50s a cabbie name of Reg Page was a friend of ours and lived at Manor House - because he said it was the first place he knew of when he came to London to become a cabbie!
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Permalink Reply by Les G on
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Sure this must have been mentioned somewhere before, but if not, here is a link to the play ‘The Knowledge’, which I remember seeing when first broadcast in the late 70s & still reminds me of the London I first lived in. Manor House is mentioned very briefly at roughly 25 mins and so happens was the place I lived and worked. ‘Run1’ is then spoken through.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSAAB1ZmudY
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Permalink Reply by Roy aka Smiffy on
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The superb film "The Knowledge2 is well worth watching for understanding what a cabbie has to endure!
A workmate did the knowledge in his spare time and would relate the antics of the examiner (in the film played by Nigel Hawthorn) so the film is probably an accurate depiction of the study that the cabbie does.
"The Knowledge is a 1979 British comedy-drama television film about a group of men and a woman doing "The Knowledge", the training required to become a London taxi driver. It was directed by Bob Brooks with an ensemble cast including Nigel Hawthorne, Mick Ford, Jonathan Lynn and Maureen Lipman."
Just say 'Manor House to Gibson Square' to a cabbie and they'll smile!
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If my memory is correct I used to pass the offices for the ‘The Knowledge’ on the Caledonian Rd on my way from the Tube station to work in Brewery Rd. Mopeds with the clipboard, similar to the one above in the film, were lined up outside on the pavement.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I missed this the first time. I was one of the control group (not a cabbie) in the study who had my brain scanned while solving puzzles, memorising lists and so on. We were invited back for a presentation of the findings and it was pretty stark how differently cabbies brains were wired compared to the general population.
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The Public Carriage Office at the time of filming of ‘The Knowledge’ was at 15 Penton St (off Pemtonville Road) and the cafe, where aspiring nervous cabbies met was nearby.
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