You’ve probably walked or bussed by the massive red brick and terracotta behemoth buildings at the top of Brixton Rd next to the park but never noticed them. Built in 1905/07, it was the original home of the General Motor Cab Company and oversaw the first wave of motorised taxis in London. This imposing structure has also had an inordinate impact on our vernacular, as three commonplace words were coined in these very buildings….Taxicab, taxi, and cab.
London’s first petrol fuelled cabs were rolled out in 1903 and by 1905 they became the norm, but they of course needed a depot where they could be parked. The garage of the General Motor Company then came into existence with home for over 2000 cabs and one of its first tasks was to get the new motorised whizzies fitted with meters. Thus became the synthesis of the words ‘taxi’ (from the French taxomiter) and ‘cab’ (from the French cabriolet).
In a time before Waymo driverless cabs threatened to mow you down in Kennington Lane, the regulation of taxis was a laborious undertaking and made compulsory by 1907 and an administration extension to the depot was erected that year, likely used to oversee revenues from the cabs. And for the young ones out there, taxis are something that old people used wave down to get home from a boozy night out. You might still see a few of them about. They’re black and driven by guys named Gary who want to talk to you about football and ‘all those people coming over in boats’.
The current occupant is largely the shared office outfit ‘Workspace’, offering shared and personal work environments at an extortionate rate….but if that subsidises their cheap coffee and free Wifi in their café then we say ‘keep up the good work’! The building is so massive, in fact, that until recently part of it was rented to the National Theatre as a storehouse for all their costumes. That space is now occupied by Pure Gym, where our PR assistant Adam once somehow managed, with devasting consequences, to get his shorts trapped in a stationary bike. Other occupants include firms of architects, consultants, catering and, most tantalisingly, a K-Pop dance school. Sign us up!
