BlueBrixx London Taxi Set 101470

BlueBrixx's London Taxi is built from 1,027 blocks, measuring 22.5 × 9.5 × 10.5 cm assembled — the traditional black cab, with a right-hand driving position and an open passenger compartment. Released 2020. Age 12+.

The turning circle is the law

A London taxi can turn in a circle of 7.6 metres — 25 feet — and it is not a design flourish. It is a legal requirement, written into the Conditions of Fitness that every licensed London cab must meet before it can carry a passenger.

The usual explanation is the forecourt of the Savoy Hotel, which has a small roundabout too tight for an ordinary car to negotiate. Whether the Savoy is the actual origin is disputed — the rule predates the modern forecourt — but the effect is real: no ordinary saloon can be licensed as a London taxi, because almost none can turn that tightly.

The Conditions go further. The passenger compartment must be tall enough to sit in wearing a hat. There must be room for a wheelchair. The driver sits separately, with luggage space beside him instead of a front passenger seat.

All of which means a London cab cannot be a converted ordinary car. It has to be designed as a taxi from nothing, which is why so few manufacturers have ever tried and why the shape has changed so little in seventy years.

The Knowledge

The other thing that makes a London cab a London cab is the driver. Learning the Knowledge — 25,000 streets and every point of interest within six miles of Charing Cross — takes most candidates three to four years, and studies have found measurable growth in the hippocampus of drivers who complete it.

It is the hardest qualification of its kind anywhere, and it exists for a city whose streets follow no grid and never will.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,027 · Series: BlueBrixx-Specials · Age: 12+
Model dimensions: 22.5 × 9.5 × 10.5 cm (8.9 × 3.7 × 4.1 in)