A graveyard of British Austin FX4 taxis in a lamentable state of abandonment

@ElentirENG ES 6·22·2024 · 23:06 0

The city of London and the United Kingdom in general have a long tradition of cars specifically designed to be taxis.

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This tradition predates the invention of the automobile and dates back to the 17th century, when the so-called "hackney carriages" were established, rental carriages that covered the current function of taxis at that time. In fact, the word "taxi" was applied in Great Britain to a specific type of hackney carriages which were open-topped, with only two wheels and were drawn by a horse.

The first cars used as taxis in Great Britain were the Berseys of 1897, vehicles that owe their name to their inventor, Walter Bersey (1874-1950), and which looked very similar to the four-wheeled carriages, but with an electric motor instead of a horse. With the arrival of the 20th century, taxis with combustion engines began to appear, outnumbering horse carriages in London in 1910.

The tradition of painting London taxis black began after the Second World War, since until then these vehicles had a certain variety of colors. In 1948, the city of London began using the Austin FX3 as a taxi, a three-door vehicle that ten years later served as inspiration for the Austin FX4, the most famous British taxi, of which more than 75,000 units were manufactured between 1958 and 1997, when it was replaced by the LTI TX1, and this was displaced in 2002 by the TXII. Since 2007, that place has been occupied by the LTI TX4. All of them have a look that is very reminiscent of the FX4.

This Friday, Urbandoned published an interesting video showing an Austin taxi graveyard FX4, in a sorry state of abandonment. What is seen in these images appears to be a private collection of these classic taxis, which may have been neglected after the death of its owner:

You can see some screenshots from the video here. According to the video, this collection had about 50 taxis. The place where they are found is in a deplorable state, with the text crumbling.

This taxi graveyard includes vehicles of various colors. It should be noted that in London there is no regulation that requires taxis to be painted black, it is just a tradition. Other British cities use taxis of another color or a combination of several colors, although black is the predominant color.

These vehicles appear to have been abandoned for many years, due to the vegetation that has been accumulating around them. Some of the taxis carry a card that indicates the year 2007.

In addition to FX4 taxis, there are also other vehicles in this cemetery. What we see here is a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit, a model launched in 1980. Unfortunately, it does not retain the famous statuette of the Spirit of Ecstasy that distinguishes these luxury cars.