What is a Hansom Cab?

The Victorian taxi that became an icon of London's streets.

A hansom cab was one of the most familiar sights on the streets of Victorian London.

Designed as a light, two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse, it carried passengers around the increasingly busy city. The driver sat high behind the passenger compartment, while those travelling inside entered through folding doors at the front.

Fast, manoeuvrable and available for hire, hansoms became the Victorian equivalent of the city taxi. By the second half of the nineteenth century, they were an everyday part of London life.

For a passenger, however, stepping into a cab also meant placing a certain amount of trust in the stranger holding the reins.

And in The Vanishing Hour, the fourth Gideon Locke mystery. that becomes rather important...