Style: ::cue(c.colorCCCCCC) { color: rgb(204,204,204); } ::cue(c.colorEEEEEE) { color: rgb(238,238,238); } ::cue(c.colorFFCC88) { color: rgb(255,204,136); } ::cue(c.cyan) { color: cyan; } ::cue(c.green) { color: green; } ::cue(c.yellow) { color: yellow; } ## This is Tom the Taxi Driver, London cabbie with a YouTube channel, which means you have the Knowledge. The Knowledge of London, the formal testing, examination that every single London taxi driver must do to be able to drive the iconic black cab. So how long did it take you? It took me just under three years, and its average is probably about between two and four years. And it's every road within six miles of London, is it, or…? The six mile radius of King Charles I Island, which is roughly the geographic centre of London. And it could be any road, point of interest. Examiners can ask you anything within that area. So it's just a good idea to try and learn as much as possible. So you've got that in your head. Yes. And I'm gonna have a phone. And the producers have laid out two routes for us. They're gonna tell us each point to go to in turn, and our individual routes have been set. So by GPS, they should take exactly the same amount of time. You, on the other hand, don't have to follow the GPS. You get to use all the shortcuts and all the knowledge that's in your head. And I'm hoping there should be some shortcuts and hopefully some knowledge in here as well. We're gonna start just around the corner. I've got something that looks like a cab but isn't. You have an actual London cab. My own taxi that I take passengers in normally. Yep. Alright. Good luck. Be lucky, Tom. See you at the finish. Okay. Hello. How are we doing? I'm good. How are you? Let's do this. Right, where to? Where to? Well… A blue plaque of Ada Lovelace, where she lived. Oh, on St James's Square. Correct. Gosh, you're good. So we are going to Mary Shelley's blue plaque, please. Mary Shelley's blue— that involves research! Oh, it's fine. Google has it. That's what I thought. Mary Shelley Blue Plaque. Yes, please. Okay. Head northwest on Rotary Street towards Borough Road/A3202 Right. Handbrake off, into drive. Away we go. And turn left onto Borough Road. So we haven't, obviously haven't got the… luxury of traffic updates here, have we? We've just got you. No, I've got no phone or anything up in front of me. So, on a normal working day to day, I will have a phone up. Not necessarily to put stuff in navigation, but just to understand what the streets and the roads are doing. So important things to say. First of all, I am required to follow all traffic laws. I am required to follow the speed limit. I'm required to drive as I normally would in London, which is kind of what I'm used to. I'm also required to follow the GPS, even if I know it would currently be quicker to go down that road and right. I've gotta follow the GPS. Yeah, at least you get to do U-turns, right? Some streets, there'll be a no U-turn sign. Yeah. Don't wanna do one there, because you'll get a fine in the post, but yeah. We have quite a tight turning circle, meaning that we don't prohibit traffic too much when we turn. Is it gonna be really hard for you not going in bus lanes? Yeah, I've almost nearly… I mean, there's one coming up here, so thank you for reminding me, Kirsten. I'm not allowed to use bus lanes today, because I am not a licensed taxi driver, so legally I can't. So I will get undertaken in just a moment… by an actual London cab who is probably gonna be wondering Turn left onto Lambeth Road/A3203. why I'm not there with him. That taxi driver that just passed you did just give you a very peculiar look. I mean, there's… To be fair, there's four cameras attached to the vehicle. I mean, I am somewhat glad that Tom has to abide by the satnav. Yeah. Because I feel like he has a very, very good knowledge of London as it is. Yeah. Through sheer osmosis. I guess the good thing about Tom being in a taxi looking vehicle though, is that he will probably get treated slightly differently on the roads. Definitely. If we put him in a really small car, and he is trying to pull out of certain junctions… It's quite difficult, I'd imagine. At the roundabout, take the second exit onto A3203. I mean, obviously I'm doing the speed limit because it's legal. But of course. But also because I know that if I don't, someone is going to be analysing the shot behind, and checking the speed that I'm going. Whoa, braking. I sort of wish I knew where Tom was. Or how he's getting on, or if he's stressing or panicking. I'm starting to get properly frustrated with everyone else in London now. It's interesting. Do you feel more frustrated because you're in the energy of a black cab? Here we go, we're not far now. We're just gonna do a right here into Marlborough Road. Okay. And then, St James's Square, almost after that. Okay. I keep expecting to see Tom in the other cab, and then I remember we're not going the same route. We're not racing. No, you're not racing. We're not gonna see each other until the finish line. Whoever gets there first. Oh, I see a blue plaque. There we go. Chatham House. Not that one. That's a different one. Ah. Ada Love… Yeah, Ada Lovelace. There we go. Ah-mazing! Pioneer of computing lived here. Stop off number one is gonna be on your right very shortly. Lovely, oh. So we're looking for a blue plaque. And I'm gonna pull in here. Your destination is on the right. We are close enough that the GPS is okay with it. Hazards are on. Right. And handbrake on. Off you go. Let's go find. (door closes) Mary Shelley. Author of Frankenstein, lived here for a bit. Right, let's go get back in the cab. Have we got it? If you wonder what the beeping is, that's the 'passenger has left the door open' alarm. 'Ello, right. (posh accent) Hello. Do close the door after you, please. These were the beeping in here. Right, next one please. Where are we off to? Ah, hello. I'm a very fancy lady, and I would like to go to Liberty please. Hello, madam. (posh accent) Hello, old chap. I'd like to go to Harrods, please. What a rather dashing hat you've got there. Thank you very much. So you wish to go to Harrods. Right, okay, I hopefully know where that is. Okay, good. This is bread and butter stuff now. Good, yeah. Most optimum route, 'cause… This has gotten a bit easier now. This will all count, won't it? Let's go up via Duke of York Street. So we don't have to go back around the square. So I actually do know where Liberty is. That is just southeast of Oxford Circus. So… In 150 yards, turn right onto Elizabeth Street. Let's see, what would I do? Straight on the Piccadilly Underpass. A4, fair left Brompton Road. Bosh. Yeah, is that our route? That is. Nailed? Nailed. When did you put a— Did you put a tiara on when I wasn't looking? Mm-yes. It's 'cause I'm a very fancy lady who's going to Liberty to buy presents for her grandchildren. I didn't realise we were doing improv characters here as we went. So are there any sneaky shortcuts on this route that we're going? Not really, it's a straight road. Okay. So… We're lucky that it's not Changing the Guard, because that whole area where we've just come from… Yeah. Does get quite gridlocked, 'cause you can't… All the traffic that would normally go past Buckingham Palace… Right. Comes out on these roads. Okay. But we are looking good. There's gonna be a load of little streets, between Park Lane and Oxford Circus, that Tom knows. Now, this is one of the roads in London that you can't actually do a U-turn on. There's a no U-turn sign here. Oh really? And there used to be a camera that was active to give people a fine. So as much as I do want to beat Tom Scott… Yeah, you can't break can't break the law. I dunno, 60 pound fine seems worth it. (cackles) is it weird that we're both called Tom? Is that gonna cause you any any production problems? Well it certainly caused some pre-production problems. And by problems, I mean, it's just been very confusing. But it's all right. Go, go, go. If you'd have looked. I've just realised my window open. I have just realised my window was open. I wonder what the vibe is in Tom's cab. I can't wait to see this later on. Turn left to stay on Piccadilly. This is Hyde Park Corner. It is… only just worse than Marble Arch up north. Sir, there's a Harrods sign there. This is it. This is Harrods here, sorry. Can I get out? I'll wait until we get up to the curb, just cause we wanna… Just to be safe. The GPS has done wonders here. I would never have gone up Piccadilly, 'cause most of the time, this is absolutely blocked up. Like, this would've been stop-go traffic all the way back to that roundabout. But it's clear most of the way to the Ritz and Piccadilly Circus. Okay, yeah, you got it? Okay, great. Right, next one. What's our ETA to the next location? Oh, sorry, I should do that in my posh woman's voice. Please, peasant, when are we arriving at my next location? By next location, the only location I want to go to in this? Well, Madam… Thank you. It is six minutes away, more or less. Delightful. Hey man. Hello madam. I'd like to go to Jimi Hendrix's house, please, man. I can see the resemblance. Very psychedelic look you've got there, madam. Do you know the address? It's on Brook Street. You're absolutely right. Look at this. Oh, am I in the right lane? Am I in the right lane? (rolling sigh) Tom the Taxi Driver would absolutely know if he's in the right lane. I do not. Oh, yes, I am. That's more by luck than good judgement. Oh, this is fantastic. Yeah? This normally can build up quite bad here. Really? I tell you why I use this, right? Knightsbridge is very bad when you get towards… if we did a U-turn where we was. Yeah. I normally jump on this road, and there's a very neat bus lane here along the left. I'm not using it. Oh, that you couldn't use. But you can't. But, there's no one here. One thing I know is that I get updates on road closures, 'cause like the GPS will update very quickly if there's a blocked road. Turn left onto Great Marlborough Street. He probably won't know about things like that, unless he sort of gets updates over the… So is there cab CB radio or anything that updates when something's closed? I was gonna say, or is there a cabbie WhatsApp group that they're all in? Maybe. Or go up Park Lane? There's gonna be some level of traffic on Park Lane. I can guarantee that. Okay. Okay. It's just how much. In 200 yards, your destination will be on the left. Alright, so Liberty's coming up on the left. It's a Tudor framed building up here. I'm gonna try and find somewhere to park just in front of it. Might have gone wrong here. I should have maybe gone through the underpass and through— Really? I will look at, yeah, Park Lane doesn't look great. That underpass would have saved us a bit of time. No bother. We just remain relaxed. Smooth is fast. Yeah, stay chill. And away you go. Thank you very much, sir. I shall tip you well. By which I say, not at all. Fast as you can please. Great. Let's go. I'm finding NordVPN really useful, because I'm on the road so much. I haven't been back to London since we shot the taxi video. This isn't some influencer paid to talk about it thing. I mean, I have been paid to talk about it, but NordVPN really is installed on my laptop, and I really do keep using it. If I want to access a site that's blocked in some country I'm in, or I'm trying to access something back in the UK, and I keep being shown the local site in some other language instead? Well, now I can just click the button on my laptop or my phone, and that site or app will think I'm in one of about 60 other countries. Or that I'm just back in the UK. It's fast, it's secure, and one subscription is enough to connect six devices at the same time. You can also try it out for 30 days with no commitment. If it's not for you, you can change your mind, and NordVPN will give you a refund. They also offer a password manager called NordPass, so if you're still not using a password manager, that's worth looking into as well. If you go to nordvpn.com/tomscottplus you'll find the best deal they're currently offering. Right, back to me in a black cab driving around London. Okay, so this is great so far, Berkeley Square. This is definitely gonna be quicker than what was going up Park Lane. Okay, so we might have pulled it back a bit here. Yeah. He's gotta also work with the satnav, so there's a lot of… inputting stuff. Yeah. You a new character? Hello. I am the ghost of Sir Isaac Newton. Please— You are the ghost of Sir Is— Well that's— Please, take me to a place that I once lived. Oh my god. I'm gonna have to do research, aren't I? Right, fine. Hand brake on. And presumably the cabbies all know Isaac Newton's old house, and I'm… Alright, Isaac Newt— Okay, nine minutes away. Head northeast on Great Marlborough Street towards Carnaby Street. Sure, let's do that. Okay. It's… London Ultra Low Emission Zone on route. It's U-turn time! How far away do you reckon we are, Tom? We are just at the end of Davies Street. We're gonna do a right, so two minutes, depending on what that traffic light does. I appreciate the effort you've gone to, to have different characters pick up. Thank you! Turn right onto Berwick Street, then turn right onto D'Arblay Street. Don't you dare, don't you dare, don't you dare. Right, I'm going through here. Here we go. So this is Claridge's on the right hand side. If we get through these lights on Brook Street, Yeah. We'll be turning right. Okay. And I'll be able to drop us just opposite. Okay. Perfect. When I'm being undertaken by a cyclist, this doesn't feel like the fastest route. I dunno, maybe Tom's stuck in traffic as well. And there will now be an ironic cut to either Tom stuck in traffic, or Tom just bombing it down Park Lane. I see the blue plaque. It's where that scaffolding is on the right hand side. Is it? Yes. Handel and Hendrix, that's the Handel one. George Frideric Handel. Oh, Hendrix next door, there we go. Oh, there we go. I'm gonna stop it safely here. Okay, I'm getting out. Cool. Now, GPS has got a big red patch ahead, which worries me. Nice. Okay, let's do it. That street was entirely empty. I could have sped down that. And instead the GPS has sent me down here, which I… Which is empty, get in! GPS said it wasn't. GPS said it was bright red on there. Howdy. (giggles) So I thought, I'm on a hen do, and I've gotta get to Holborn Station, please. Holborn Station. Oh, nice. That's not a very attractive hen do location. Well, I'm getting the tube out to Essex. There's a part of my brain that wants to treat this like it's a race. It's not, this is an experiment. I've gotta drive normally. It's fine. So I'm just quelling the part of my brain that's going, "Go on, go on. You can take that." So Holborn Station, the actual frontage, and hopefully you'll be able to see it from where we are outside. Yeah. Hold on a minute, it's in a one-way system. So how am I gonna get there? Ah, this is gonna be really bad actually. There's work going on Bloomsbury Way, which is the main road of getting there. So many pedestrians, so few of them looking before they cross the road. In 200 yards, your destination will be on the left. Approaching on the left very shortly. Isaac Newton's place. Let's see where I'm parking. I'm gonna park just here on the right. Isaac Newton's place is just ahead on the left, and… you're off. I'm not looking forward to this one, if I'm completely honest. Really? Yeah. So geographically we might have worked it all out, but it's the time wise of getting through it. Right. Please tell me I can take the wig off now. Yeah. So this is our final stop before the last stop. Wow, okay. This is our penultimate stop, I should say. I think I'm getting more anxious as it goes on. Another costume, another character. Let me guess. I'm going on my hen do up north. Alright. So I need you take to Kings Cross, please love. Kings Cross Station. Yes, please. So now we're on Oxford Street. Okay. This is the moment of truth. We turn left and we, shock horror… Oh, it's looking good. And not too bad. It's looking good. So those buses are stopped by that light, and there's no one at Tottenham Court Road. Okay, great. That is very good. I'm pleased so far. London Ultra Low Emission Zone on route. You don't need to tell me that. I'm already in the London Low Emission Zone. Alright, cool. We are— Oh my god, 24 minutes for this run. Whew! This is gonna be a slow one. I got a big red warning on my GPS. I just hope that Tom is having a very fun time. (laugh blurt) I hope he's hit shed loads of traffic. (guttural groan) There has to be a faster way through this. There has to be. Sadly though, there is no other way. If it was my limitations of Knowledge… Yeah. I would be very upset. For this second time 'round, it's taken us up here. And… it does look clear. It is tight, but frankly the turn circle does help on this. No one behind. Plenty in front. It would be great if people didn't walk in front of the car at this present moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're fine now. Oh, smashed it! To be fair to the GPS, I haven't been stuck in traffic once yet. Yeah, this is true. I'm just not convinced it's taking you the best route, but… Turn right onto Great Russell Street. Once we straighten up, go past the British Museum, I've gotta look ahead and see what my options are. There's a couple of ways of exiting off of it. Got you. That's them! Where? Right behind us. In 200 yards, turn left onto Montague Street. You're kidding. Nope. And they just passed us, I think. I feel so lost. Oh no, don't. Oh no. Are they going north? They are going north. Oh, we've lost it then, we've lost it. There's nothing I can do. Not necessarily. So you've got the tracker. Are they following us? Are we going the same way? We are not. No. Alright. So that was just a coincidence. It was a complete chance that we just crossed paths. Okay… Options, options. Okay, we're not far now, right? Not far as the crow flies, but there will be invariably traffic. This is absolutely not a race. I may or may not be ahead of them. It doesn't matter. I'm just driving as I normally would. Oh god. This is painful. It could be worse, Kirsten. The metre could be running. Ha! This is so true. About this time, you'd probably be right to complain about the metre steadily ticking up, you know. That's true. Although the metre stopped. I don't actually know how to work it. Number was too big. No one gave me instructions for the metre. Here we go. Yes. Freedom! I'm getting competitive now. That's not my— My job is to drive like your average mini cab driver. Yeah. Follow the GPS. Do what it tells me. I am an interface between Google Maps and the passengers. And my job is not to get overcompetitive about the fact it sent me a terrible way. Holborn Station's coming up. I'm sure you know, madam, that this is your appropriate train to get you back to Essex. Right, we're nearly there. Ohh. There is an official pick-up and drop-off point here. Out I get. Should be open now, yeah. Holborn Station. Thank you. I'll be here somewhere. This appears to be a valid set-down point. I might be further along. Oh, lovely. Go. Thank you very much. Have a good day! It's really busy now. This is so embarrassing! Okay, great. Let's go, next stop. Good? Good, right. One last stop. Okay. Final stop, Gibson Square. Gibson Square? Do you like my moustache? You seem to have grown caterpillar upon your top lip. The things you do for your job. Alright. Do we have another character or are you just you now? Oh no. Oh— (laughs uproariously) Where are we headed to? We are going to Gibson Square, please sir. My name's Mr. Taxi, and Gibson Square has some kind of importance to when you learned the Knowledge. Right. Can't remember what it is. Gibson Square it is. It's in the GPS. Let's go. Yeah, so Gibson Square, that is particularly memorable for you, right? Every London cabbie, possibly anyone who's ever tried attempting the Knowledge. Yeah. The very first run goes from Manor House Station… Yeah. off of Green Lanes, if we were at Manor House. Yeah. to Gibson Square. Yeah, hopefully I know where Gibson Square is. So everyone has to learn Gibson Square. Doing the Knowledge. Yeah. So here's the thing, I couldn't U-turn there. Right. There's no easy way to do that. And the GPS had a bit of a problem, and it's now stuck on re-routing. Oh. I just hope that Tom has had a good day out. I was meant to say thank you to the cab behind. I forgot there was this little plastic thing there. Did you just slam it? Whacked my hand on that. I want Tom to do well. Aw, that's nice. I want to see people seeing him drive across London and go, that's Tom Scott driving a black cab. Oh yeah, that all happened. And then you know the seas parted for him. You know, come on Tom. My GPS is just stuck on re-routing. It doesn't even know where I am. And I am right in the middle of Kings Cross with full 5G. So I'm just gonna have to find somewhere safe to stop. Here we go, that's a lay-by. Alright, we're gonna stop here. I'm gonna have to join the start of that route, and then just try and follow it. There's no other way to do it. I'm kind of a pessimist by heart anyway. We're gonna turn up, he's gonna be in Gibson Square, smiling. So true. Looking at me saying, "Where did you get to?" (laughs) And that'll be forever emblazoned— "What took you so long?" He's gonna say something like that, isn't he? That's gonna be emblazoned in my brain for the rest of my eternity. And I will no longer be able to complete my job as a cab driver. I might as well hand him my badge. But I forgot just how mentally tiring it is to constantly do this. I dunno how Tom does it for hours and hours. ♪ Drive, drive, drive your car gently down the road ♪ ♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily… obey the highway code ♪ Oh my god, it's so close. Oh. It's actually so close. Oh no. Like it's ridiculously close. Don't say that. I actually can't cope with how close this is. Two minutes to go until we're there, and I suspect I know what I'm gonna find when I get there. Really? Mm… I don't think there's any way I could never say. I don't think there's any way I've won this one. It's not a race. It's not a race, but also… It's not a race. I don't think there's any way I've won this one. I really wanna just see him just go ding, like past us here. I honestly think we could be seeing him very soon. If he does, I'm just gonna blare the horn and be like, "Nooo!" I think the thing I'm most happy about is that at no point have I made any illegal manoeuvres. Yep. At no point have I misread the GPS or gone the wrong way. That was a very stressful drive. Turn left onto Gibson Square. Then you will arrive at your destination. Oh yeah, I see Gibson Square. This is it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where's a TX4? This is us, right? Yeah, this is us, but I can't see a TX4. Right, well pull in then! Pull in! No way! Have we won? I can't see him. Oh my goodness. Oh my word, please. Oh my god, have we won? No way. (both squealing) Where is he? Tom?! Is he here? Did we win? I think we did. Yes! Yes, beat that, Tom Scott. Gibson Square. Aww! Oh, there we go! No way! I'll park up and talk to you in a minute. See you in a sec. Yeah, I don't think I stood a chance there, did I? Well done though. How close was it? We was here for about 20 minutes, mate. Honestly, we've only just pulled up. Really? I know that everyone's like, "Oh, it's so close!" and stuff like that. I thought you had won that. Do you think you could have done it without that, with your knowledge already? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Really? Because you are always around London. You know London, you've been here, you've drove here. I've driven some of these roads. But I would've hit traffic two or three times. I would've been in the wrong lane. I would've gone the wrong way. Right. And trying to navigate that last half mile would've got me. I think, yeah, Google or whoever you use, whatever you use, has let you down there, but… It's all variables. Well done, man. Thank you Tom. It's been a pleasure. [Caption+ by JS* caption.plus | @caption_plus]