Cabmen's Shelter, Russell Square
A tiny green Victorian hut that has fed and warmed London's cab drivers for over a century, one of just thirteen survivors.
FREE
The lowdown
Dotted across central London are little green wooden huts the size of a garden shed, easy to mistake for quaint sheds but actually historic cabmen's shelters. Built from the 1870s by a charity that worried about cab drivers drinking in pubs, they gave horse-cab and later taxi drivers a warm place to rest and get a hot meal off the street.
Only thirteen of the original sixty-one survive, all now listed, and the one by Russell Square is a fine example. The inside is reserved for licensed cabbies, but most will happily serve the public a cheap tea or bacon roll from the hatch. It is free to admire, and a lovely living link to the city's horse-drawn past.
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