The Best Taxi Driver in London The World

by Louis Ricca

London is a city that has been around for many years, and absorbing the history of London, and the UK can be quite a daunting challenge that would take a College course spanning several semesters in order to get a good handle on it. We met a cabby that did just that.

My wife Jacqueline and I went to London this March 20th until the 27th, both for business and holiday. I was to go alone at first to attend to two of my clients National (and International) film screening and opening at the Ritzy in the Brixton part of London. No One Knows About Persian Cats is a film by Bahman Ghobadi about the illegal underground music scene in Iran that stars Ash Koosha and Negar Shaghaghi as well as their music and many other genres of music and musicians. The film has won over 7 awards, one which is the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. (a must see movie, especially if you are a music buff) Since this trip was going to be a couple of days, my wife decided she would like to visit London since she had never been there. So we went together and spent a week.

We got to see a lot of London, basically the tourist route: Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Big Ben, 10 Downing Street, Brick Lane and of course much more. We thought we saw it all until the final day, or should I say, the final hours we were in London when we met a man who most people would think was just an ordinary, simple man that drives people from point “A” to point “B” in order to make a living. We would never had met this man if it weren’t for a couple of negative events that seemed to want us to stay in London.

The night before our departure from the hotel to the airport, I went online to make final reservations for our shuttle trip. When I found the website that sold the tickets, we were sent to the credit card authorization for the final sale. I entered my details and hit the ‘transmit’ button and waited for the, you know OK, your on! Or, Your reservation is confirmed, or, Okie Doakie, meet us at such and such a place in London.

But Nooooooo! The credit card came back and asked me for a password, which I then proceeded to enter my pin number since this is the only password I have ever used.

I waited for the Okie Doke again and much to my chagrin it came back as a wrong password.
WHAT!?!?!

OK, machines aren’t perfect, so I entered it again..and again, and changed it in case I was becoming even more dyslectic and was just entering it reversed or something.

NOPE….it’s not happening, so…. Plan “B”.
HONEY!!! I yelled into my cell phone. “We need your credit card.” I explained to her what was happening and she handed me her card and her password in two different ways. But not because she is becoming dyslectic like me. We’re only human, and we are all prone to mistakes! (Turns out the credit card company instituted passwords for online use not too long ago.)

So, back to the drawing board. To make a long story short, the same thing happened since both passwords she gave me were wrong. We were strongly showing our human side and now after all this, both my sides were telling me nighty night, lets figure this out in the morning with a regular cab to the airport.

I woke up early (as usual) and started my morning knowing the plan. Packing, checking out and leaving and of course, the challenges at the airport. Coffee of course is numero uno and I moseyed downstairs to get my usual dose. In the lobby were two cab drivers shooting the breeze, so I asked one about the fares to Gatwick.

Gerry was a gentleman and a London looking cab driver that had something extra about him that I couldn’t nail at first. He had a jolly look, rounded cheeks, dressed neat and clean and had a sparkle in is eyes. He seemed like he was a very happy person.

We dickered on price and came to a fair deal. After taking care of business with him, we started some small talk and somewhere within there, he asked me if we would like to see a little of London before getting on the plane. I told him we were almost tapped for our expenses and paying for another two hours ride was way out of budget.

“Oh don’t worry, its my treat”. “Wow, That is so nice of you” I responded, Thank you, my wife is not going to believe this!”

Gerry came and picked us up right on time. Not one block from the hotel, Gerry was telling us about the building complex we had just left and what we will be coming to around the turn of the corner.

Down the streets we went. “To the left is a building owned by so and so who was on the board of directors for Haliburton. Now how he came to get so much money to buy that building is beyond me” Without missing a beat, he went on. “On the right is the Dolphin statue that no one really pays attention to, but has a lot of history. The gentleman who built if just died. On the left is another one no one pays attention to that was done by John Whistler”. Wow, I’m thinking, some of this is amazing! “Then, Londoners are known for their eccentricities, this man who owns this home on the right is one of the best Shakespeare buffs in the world, look at his cars in the driveway. One license plate is 2b-or and the other is not-2b!” Ha! Wow, this taxi driver has all sorts of knowledge! “This building is from the 16th century, and the owner took it brick by brick and rebuilt it here-cost him 10 millions of pounds and rebuilt it for 60 million pounds to do this.

“There’s MI5….” Down to another street, “to the left is an old building that was a prison, and the prisoners were called clinkers. Thats why they named the street Clinker Street!”

He even took us thru tunnels throughout London that only taxi drivers know about, tunnels used by taxis years ago and rarely used now. We threaded throughout London, zig zagging, looping and u-turning whenever needed. Nevertheless, we were shortly headed in the right direction for Gatwick and for the last 10 miles, we drove onto the M-something or other and were at Gatwick at almost precisely the time we asked him to drop us off.

Gerry had a plethora of information on London as well as the history of each and every thing we encountered. Gerry told us he did 4 years of schooling to be a London “Hack” and that also meant he studied the history of London even before becoming a student of taxi driving.

I wish I could have given him more money-more of a cash tip for his gift to us. But one thing I am going to say, in fact, I am going to forever know that there is, in fact, the best taxi driver in the world. He lives in London and he is as real as a person can get.

Gerry, My wife and I thank you for a time we will remember for the rest of our lives. You are, in fact, The Worlds Best Taxi Driver!

Writers note. In case you want the time of your life, here’s Gerry’s phone number, 07956 576 104 but Please take good care of him. He is married with two daughters. He’s licensed and a great safe driver to boot!