Fare deal: London black cab ‘knowledge’ school is saved from closure

London’s most venerable taxi school has won a reprieve from its impending closure due to high rents and the rise of Uber, thanks to an agreement with the London Taxi Company, which makes the city’s iconic black cabs.

Knowledge Point, which has trained black-cab drivers for more than 30 years, was expected to go out of business at the end of last year, when its premises in Caledonian Road, Islington, were being redeveloped to make way for luxury flats.

“We were 10 days away from closing completely, we couldn’t afford the rent in central London, so their offer before Christmas was well received,” said Malcolm Linskey, the founder of the taxi school. He said the company considered moving to Leytonstone, in east London, but it was too far away from the centre of the city.

All London black-cab drivers have to complete “the knowledge”, an encyclopaedic accumulation of detail about the capital’s streets. It can take up to four years to learn the 25,000 roads within a 10km radius of Charing Cross, usually on a motor scooter in all weathers. The trainees spend hundreds of hours drawing lines on laminated maps of the city, working out the most direct routes from one destination to another.

The school, which opened in 1983, has seen 9,000 black cab drivers graduate to London’s roads. Given Knowledge Point’s crucial role in teaching cabbies, LTC has thrown the school a lifeline.

As from Monday, Knowledge Point classes will be held at LTC’s Brewery road dealership, a few metres from its former location.