Two green cabmen’s shelters - in Kensington and Chelsea at Pont Street and Chelsea Embankment - have been listed at Grade II by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England. As we've reported before on Shedworking, cabment's shelters were rest stops for licensed cab drivers but sadly only 13 of the more than 60 that were built survive in London, relics of the capital's 19th century horse-drawn hansom cab trade.
They offered drivers a spot where they could rest and have access to hot food without leaving their cab unattended. They were established as part of The Cabmen’s Shelter Fund (CSF) in 1875, a charity that still runs today.
The two in the most recent listing are those at Pont Street and Chelsea Embankment. Pont Street shelter was built in 1892 and is still open today for taxi drivers after some modernisation. The shelter at Chelsea Embankment (pictured above) is known as ‘The Pier’ as it is close to Cadogan Pier, and was built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund in 1912. It became redundant and fell into a poor state of repair until recently funded works last year by the Heritage of London Trust which hopes to open the newly restored shelter as a public micro cafĂ© soon.-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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