Places
Ant – Anthologist Bar
Arsehole of the World – Deptford SE8
The Batcave – Westfield Shopping Centre (T6)/Lower Robert Street WC2/Area under Charing Cross Station (there seems to be a debate as to what EXACTLY it refers to)
BDC – Business Design Centre
BFU – Blackfriars Underpass
BH – Banqueting House Whitehall
Blackfriars Underpants/BFUP – Blackfriars Underpass
Blakeys – Shakepeare Pub Buckingham Palace Road
The Bone – Marylebone Station
BP – Battersea Park
BPS – Battersea Power Station
Bullring – The crescent at the entrance to back of Royal Hospital Chelsea Embankment
BWT – Blackwall Tunnel
CJ – Clapham Junction
CK’s – Chelsea Kitchen (Fulham Rd)
CTZ rank (also Tez rank)- Selfridges rank
CX – Charing Cross Station
Dilly – Piccadilly
DSWB – Dover Street Wine Bar
Dungeon, The – The Public Carriage Office
Dogs, The – Wimbledon Dog track
Euro/St P – Eurostar/St Pancras Station
EU – Euston Underpass
F&M – Fortnum & Mason
Fen, The – Fenchurch Street station
Flyers – Airport
The Gas Chamber – Euston Taxi Rank
The Gas Works – Houses Of Parliament
GB Valley – Green Badge Valley (Essex A12) lots of GB drivers live out there
GHH – Grosvenor House Hotel
GIR – Grays Inn Road
Gist – Anthologist Bar Gresham Street
Grange SP – Grange St Paul’s Hotel
GSP – Grange St Paul’s
GSS – Great Suffolk Street cafe/shop
HAC – Honourable Artillery Company
HC – Hurlingham Club
Hole In The Wall – Wilton Road entrance to Victoria Station
HPC – Hyde Park Corner
Hilton PL – Hilton Park Lane
HPL – Hilton Park Lane
The Iron Lung – Toilet on Horseferry Road SW1
JL – John Lewis
KWAK – Kojak With A Kodak
KX/The Cross/The X – Kings Cross Station
K’s – Kennedy’s Fish & Chips (Goswell Rd)
LCA – London City Airport
LDC – Camley St Cafe
LHL – Limehouse Link
LHR – London Heathrow Airport
The Loo – Waterloo Station
Magic Roundabout – bottom of M41
Masterpiece (arts fair) – Royal Hospital Chelsea Embankment.
MBON – May be old news
Mcliver – Liverpool Street taxi rank (by McDonalds)
ML – More London
MOS – Ministry Of Sound
NKS – Nine Kings Suite (Lancaster hotel)
NCD – North Carriage Drive
NHM – Natural History Museum
OB – Old Billingsgate
OKR – Old Kent Road
Qs – Quaglinos Restaurant
QVS – Queen Victoria Street
Padders – Paddington Station
P G Tips – Palace Gardens Terrace
The Pipe – The Blackwall Tunnel
PPH (Pissy Pike Hill) – Paddington Station
QMG – Queen Mother Gate, Hyde Park
RAFT – Rail Air & Freight Terminal (Gatwick Express)
Rods – Harrods
Roundhouse – Camden Roundhouse
RAH – Royal Albert Hall
RHT – Rotherhithe Tunnel
Royal Lobster – Kings Cross Station
ROH – Royal Opera House
SBG – Shepherds Bush Green
Scabacus – Abacus night club/bar
SCD – South Carriage Drive
SCH – Sea Containers House, new Mondrian Hotel
SOS – Smiths Of Smithfield
SS – Swallow Street (rank)
Stage Door – Main Entrance to Waterloo Station
Steps – Large steps entrance to north entrance at Waterloo
Sweetings – 24 hour cafe on Queen Victoria Street
The Bays – Bayswater
The Vic – Victoria Station
T6 – Westfield Shopping Centre
Tez Rank (also CTZ rank) – Selfridges Duke St rank
TFP – The Feeder Park (Heathrow)
TT – Tiger Tiger
The Tennis – Wimbledon annual tennis tournament
TOL – Tower Of London
Tom’s – Burger Van on Clapham Common
Twickers – Twickenham Stadium
Up The Stairs Euston – Queue of people all the way onto the stairs at Euston rank
VCS – Victoria Coach Station
The Wedding Cake, QVM – Queen Victoria Memorial
Wharf/The Island – Canary Wharf
WW – Winter Wonderland (Hyde Park) when it’s on
Zombie Triangle – Great Eastern St/Old St/Shoreditch High St
Other Abbreviations
1/3, 2/6, 3/9 etc – what number cab you are on a rank of waiting cabs
Arnie (To do an Arnie) – as in “I’ll be back”, I’m coming back to work, not going home.
A Churchill – A meal. Churchill gave cabbies the right to refuse a fare while eating
Apples & Pears – Stairs
Arthur Deck – half a deck (at Paddington)
ATM – At The Moment
B&B – Badge & Bill check (by PCO, TFL, Police)
Babylon – The police
Bag of Sand – a grand – £1000 (although very unlikely you’ll ever get this)
BD – Both Directions
Berty Popped – Albert Hall burst
Bill – Taxi license
BTF – Back to front (from the back of the queue to the front time)
Bilker – someone who doesn’t pay
Bill & Ben – “10”
Billys/Billies – Billy Bunter -Punter
BL – Boot Lids – boot lids open when overranking to avoid CCTV seeing reg
Blue Book – Books containing runs knowledge students have to learn
Blue Lights – Police dealing with accident/crime
Blue Trees – Policeman with speed camera hiding behind a tree
Both Barrels (at Euston) – the 2 ramps down to Euston’s pick up area
Bottle – 2
Broom – passing a job you don’t want to the driver behind you on a rank
Bullseye – 50
Burst/On The Burst – people emerging from a venue at the end
Butterboy – Cabbie who hasn’t been in the business long
Butterfly – A Cabbie who only work in the summer.
Cabbed Out – A place is full with cabs
Cablore – Cab etiquette
CabUp – Cabbie Updates
Cake – Work (from “to be caked” loaded)
Carpet – 3
Ching – 5
CBJ – Clipboard Johnny
CO – Carriage Officers
Cock & Hen – Man and Woman passenger or “10”
Code Red – Heathrow needs taxis badly & you are to bypass the feeder park
Cooking/Roasting – A driver referring to a very long time spent on a rank
Copperbottom – A Cabbie who drives for an excessive number of hours
Craig (doing a Craig) – treacherous, greedy cabbie (1st cabbie seen on Uber)
Cricket Seats – Tip up seats
DAC – Dial A Cab
Den of Thieves/Fagin’s Kitchen – Stock Exchange
Doing Bird – Time (Bird Lime = time) – a long wait
Dried Up – No work
Droshky – A Taxi
EB or E/B – Eastbound
FO – Flyover
FP – Fixed Price
Free MOT – Old Bill/PCO/Tfl doing roadside vehicle checks
Fubar – F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition
Full House – Maximum number of passengers on board
Gavroched – When the traffic in Upper Brook Street is so bad it is possible to get out of cab, read menu in the porch of La Gavroche restaurant, and get back into cab.
GBx – Golden Bollox (Jammy Git)
Geoff Hurst – Burst
Grow Bag Aerial – Aerial used on a minicab
Guvner – Bloke what owns the cab you rent
Hands Up – People needing cabs
Hanging Up – Cabbies sitting with light off and picking work they want
Hairdyer/Oil/Oil Slick – Copper with speed radar gun
Hickory – Taxi Meter
Hillmans (Hillman Hunters)- Punters
HT – Heavy Traffic
im ‘n’ er – Man & Woman
Jacks – 5
Jekyll (Jekyll & Hyde) – Snide (fake)
Jenson – Button
JO – Junction Of
Kojac with a Kodak – Copper with a radar gun
KOL – Knowledge Of London
Legalled/Legal – Being paid exact fare (no tip)
LFC – Looking For Cabs
Long’un, a oner – £100 (job)
Louis Vuitton, Loius V, L.V. – Good job on board
Low Loader – Old Cab
Mash Up – Traffic is atrocious
MBON – May Be Old News
Meat On The Bone – Work at Marylebone
Meltoned – queue of cabs at Euston all the way to Melton St
Mexican Wave – lots of punters with their hands up in one place
Monkey – 500
MRA – Mini Roundabout
Musher – Owner Driver
Neves – 7
NB or N/B – Northbound
OFL – One For Later – referring to places that will have work later on in the day
On & Off – arriving at a rank/place & then straight off with a punter
ONO – On ‘n’ Off
On me Jack (Jones) – I’m the only one here
On Point – first taxi on a rank
Oodles – lots
OP – On Point
OTW – On The Way
Pax – passenger
Peeps/ppl – People or punters
Penguins – Men in black ties/black tie event
Pete’s On The Finz – Tea hut at Finsbury Square run by Peter
Plate – Expensive plastic on back of taxi
POB – Passenger On Board
PONR – Point Of No Return (i.e. St Pancras pick up)
Pony – £25
Port – Airport
ppl – people
Putting on Foul – Over the space provided by rank
Q – Queue (or people or taxis)
Roader – Long Distance Job
Roader (said sarcastically) – A VERY short job
RTG – Radio Taxis Group
Ruof, rhymes with loaf…4….Four spelt backwards, back-slang
Runner – Punter who doesn’t pay the fare
Running well – A rank that has cabs, but is moving fast with fares
RWs – Roadworks
SALT – Single Alternate Lane Traffic
Scab – Illegal minicab
Score – 20
Sherbert/Sherb – A Taxi Cab
SB or S/B – Southbound
Set – An accident
Showing Out – punter with hand out looking for cab
Single Pin – Single passenger
SNAFU – Situation Normal All Fouled Up
Soz – Sorry
Spare – Part timer who only shows up when it’s busy
Stalking – Working with meter off
Suit – City Gent (from back when they wore bowler hats)
Tachbrooked – Victoria rank all the way back down to Tachbrook
Toes Up/Foot up – a warning to slow down, there’s a speed radar trap
Tradesavers – cabbies who stay out late to stop work going in scabs
TLC – Tweetalondoncab
Turkish – laugh (you’re avin’ a laugh – Turkish bath)
VHT/VVVVVVHT – Very Heavy Traffic
WB or W/B – Westbound
Wrong-un – A punter you have on board you know will be trouble/not pay
The Yard – Name for the old Public Carriage Office location
Zeiger – Meter