
Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Inside the Shelter.This photo shows the cramped confines of the cabmen's shelter shown on page page 23 . The proprietor (in apron) is standing in the doorway of the tiny kitchen.
Source:
Outing magazine, vol. XLV, 1904, p. 157. For more pictures of 1904 London cab life see Vance Thompson's Cab Drivers: The London Cabby.
|
Bloomsday for Cab Drivers / 28
The Cabmen's Shelter / 6
The food in the Butt Bridge shelter, though cheap, leaves something to be desired:
The keeper of the shelter... put a boiling, swimming cup of a choice concoction labelled coffee on the table and a rather antediluvian specimen of a bun, or so it seemed. [16 354 / 25807]
A 1986 article by John Bainbridge in Gourmet Magazine did not say much about the food in cabmen's shelters, possibly because the limited menu offered little scope for comment. But the customers were evidently satisfied:
The helpings are generous, the service is fast, and everything on the plate is consumed, no doubt testifying to customer satisfaction," he wrote of the Warwick Avenue shelter. "When asked their opinion of the food, drivers customarily reply 'Not bad,' a response that, in the light of their natural reluctance to appear impressed by anything, probably translates as 'good' to 'very good.'

|