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Maps that made Cabmen honest
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1979
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
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In 1845 Edward Mogg published a map entitled 'Modem London and its Environs.' This was initially intended for the Post Office London Directory. In 1856 his successor, William Mogg, adapted the map, in its top margin inserting a second title, 'Mogg's Cab¬Fare Map.' The map, issued in three different sizes and sometimes with variant titles, continued to appear until circa 1876 by which time it was grossly inaccurate.
Mogg had his rivals. William S. Orr & Co. produced a 'Cab¬Fare and Guide Map of London', engraved by Secker's Patent Process, which indicated cab stands and provided half-mile distances along thoroughfares. Under the heading, 'No More Disputes with Cabmen', Simpkin & Co. advertised 'an elegant waistcoat-pocket map of London, divided by triangles over the whole surface, the sides of the angles being equal to halfa mile, or, in cab value. equal to 4d.' The splendidly named Captain N. Scrope Shrapnel, late of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, published several editions of a volume of tables entitled Shrapnel's Stradametrical Survey of London con¬taining a record 14,800,000 mean distances!
Cover of Mogg's folded 'Postal¬District and Cab-Fare Map', 1858 edition. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In 1853, in consequence of the most outrageous overcharging of foreign visitors in London for the Great Exhibition, the Govern¬ment passed the Act for the Better Regulation of Metropolitan Stage and Hackney Carriages. From that date the only legal fares were those based on distances measured by authority of the Commissioner of Police on a 'perambulator'. (One of these instruments survives at Bow Street Police Station.) Before the close of 1853 both the City and the Metropolitan Police had brought out official tables, a cruel blow to Mogg and his like. A cute waistcoat-pocket volume measuring one and a half inches by three and a half inches was published by Houlston & Wright in 1864. This contained an invaluable vocabulary for brave non¬fluent visitors ('What will you charge to drive me to -?'; 'It is too much, I will give you -') but only 29,520 fares, taken with permission from police calculations, and a sad little 'Chart of London' that is unlikely to be more than of marginal interest to the average map collector of today.
Captain N. Scrape Shrapnel's 'Stradametrical Survey' supplied a record 14,800,000 mean distances. In 1851 it was supple¬mented by a list of fares from all the principal streets of London to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
Further Reading :
NB. The author would like to thank Mr Donald Hodson who kindly supplied him with the Overton advertisement mentioned above. and an unidentified gentleman at a recent meeting of the Ephemera Society who drew his attention to Mr Sponge's enthusiasm for Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares.
COPYRIGHT September 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Mogg had his rivals. William S. Orr & Co. produced a 'Cab¬Fare and Guide Map of London', engraved by Secker's Patent Process, which indicated cab stands and provided half-mile distances along thoroughfares. Under the heading, 'No More Disputes with Cabmen', Simpkin & Co. advertised 'an elegant waistcoat-pocket map of London, divided by triangles over the whole surface, the sides of the angles being equal to halfa mile, or, in cab value. equal to 4d.' The splendidly named Captain N. Scrope Shrapnel, late of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, published several editions of a volume of tables entitled Shrapnel's Stradametrical Survey of London con¬taining a record 14,800,000 mean distances!
Cover of Mogg's folded 'Postal¬District and Cab-Fare Map', 1858 edition. By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
In 1853, in consequence of the most outrageous overcharging of foreign visitors in London for the Great Exhibition, the Govern¬ment passed the Act for the Better Regulation of Metropolitan Stage and Hackney Carriages. From that date the only legal fares were those based on distances measured by authority of the Commissioner of Police on a 'perambulator'. (One of these instruments survives at Bow Street Police Station.) Before the close of 1853 both the City and the Metropolitan Police had brought out official tables, a cruel blow to Mogg and his like. A cute waistcoat-pocket volume measuring one and a half inches by three and a half inches was published by Houlston & Wright in 1864. This contained an invaluable vocabulary for brave non¬fluent visitors ('What will you charge to drive me to -?'; 'It is too much, I will give you -') but only 29,520 fares, taken with permission from police calculations, and a sad little 'Chart of London' that is unlikely to be more than of marginal interest to the average map collector of today.
Captain N. Scrape Shrapnel's 'Stradametrical Survey' supplied a record 14,800,000 mean distances. In 1851 it was supple¬mented by a list of fares from all the principal streets of London to the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park.
By courtesy of Guildhall Library, City of London.
Further Reading :
- James Howgego, Printed Maps of London, circa 1553-1850 (Folkestone: William Dawson 1979).
- Ralph Hyde, Printed Maps of Victorian London, 1851-1900 (Folkestone: William Dawson 1975).
- W.I. Gordon. The florse-World of London (London: Religious Tract Society 1893).
- Henry Charles Moore. Omnibuses and Cabs: Their Origin and History (London: Chapman & Hall 1902).
- Max Schlesinger. Saunterings in and about London (London: Nathaniel Cooke 1853).
NB. The author would like to thank Mr Donald Hodson who kindly supplied him with the Overton advertisement mentioned above. and an unidentified gentleman at a recent meeting of the Ephemera Society who drew his attention to Mr Sponge's enthusiasm for Mogg's Ten Thousand Cab Fares.
COPYRIGHT September 1979 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
