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The hansom's manoeverablity and small size gave it an advantage over four-wheeled vehicles in narrow, crowded streets. The classic hansom design first appeared in London in the 1830s and was quickly adopted in North America and Australia.
Source:
General View, Showing the Important Place Among Vehicles for Hire Filled by the London Hansoms.
Outing magazine, vol. XLV, 1904, p. 158.
Vance Thompson's Cab Drivers / 20
The London Cabby / 7
The Englishman's consuming desire to "go out and kill something" is supplemented by a solemn interest in saving souls. There is of course a mission for cabmen. A grim gray-brick little building at King's Cross houses the mission, which is as complete as heart could wish, including prayer meetings, bible classes, preaching, a temperance class and a Band of Mercy. The London cabby, however, runs to red blood-corpuscles; what leisure he gets he spends profitably in having a go with Bat Mullins or, not so wisely, in having a bit on the 'orses. Withal he is a politician in his way. His Union, nearly 5,000 strong, makes him quite a power in local affairs, and Sam Michaels, the president, will probably break into the House of Commons at the next general election. The headquarters are in Gerard Street, Soho. It is there you will find Fred Hill, a sound, brown bearded little man, who edits the penny monthly. It is a blithe magazine, covered with orange-hued paper – why don't they let the distressful country alone? – and containing all sorts of meaty cab news and cabby's views. Among the advertisements I saw one that let in a flood of light on the cabman's opportunities for picking up the honest sixpence. Read here: "To advertise the newly-opened and up-to-date Blank-Dash Hotel the Proprietor for every customer brought to the Hotel, which is open day and night. "Please note: This Hotel must not be made a shoot for drunken fares." Upon the whole the London cabby is diligent, honest and civil. Certainly he gets more than his fair share of abuse. Every day in London 120,000 people ride in cabs. Of course there is friction and there is a deal of noisy quarreling over fares, but, so far as my experience goes, the cabby is usually right in his estimate of the distance he has traveled and the money that is due him. The cab horses are a good lot. They are worked six hours a day on an average. About three years in a hansom, however, will do up the best of them. Then they drift down to the four-wheelers. A melancholy vehicle, that. You remember, do you not, "Gregers" in Ibsen's "Wild Duck," whose unhappy destiny it was to be always thirteenth at table? It is the gloomy function of the four-wheeler to "follow with the luggage." At best it never rises higher than the function of freighting home roysterers and bad husbands, night-wasters and cordial, ignoble girls. A melancholy destiny.