Can London’s black cabs survive driverless cars?

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• 01:14

  When you think of London, you might think of all the classics:

• 01:17

  Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, red telephone boxes, all that stuff.

• 01:22

  You might also think of the people and the London accent,

• 01:26

  the Cockney accent, the one that actor Michael Caine has,

• 01:30

  or the one that Dick Van Dyke tries to have in Mary Poppins.

• 01:34

  So we have rhyming slang for everything.

• 01:37

  So neck is Gregory Peck, teeth for Hampstead Heath, hair is Barnet Fair, and so forth.

• 01:44

  Our own lexicon is extensive.

• 01:46

  This is Tom Scullion.

• 01:47

  He's a black cab driver, he's from London's East End, and he speaks with a Cockney accent with pride.

• 01:53

  Yeah, we've even got our own language, so other people who are non-Cockneys can't understand what we're saying.

• 01:59

  And that goes back to when people were thieves and vagabonds,

• 01:59

  and they didn't want the policemen who was in the same inns

• 01:59

  or hostelleries understanding what they were saying.

• 02:05

  Cockney rhyming slang is a particular eccentricity of the city, like the cab which Tom is driving me around in.

• 02:17

  But for years, Cockney rhyming slang has been heard less and less,

• 02:21

  and London's famous black cabs have been facing troubles of their own.

• 02:25

  And we don't want to see this wonderful taxi trade disappear after -

• 02:29

  yeah, we've been about since Charles the First.

• 02:31

  400 years ago?

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