Hansom: cabbies' hut gets listed status at last

Wellington Place’s Victorian green refuge is the final one to be protected

- John Dunne

HISTORIC green huts which gave Victorian cabbies shelter and a place to eat in London are now all protected buildings, after the final shelter in St John's Wood was listed.

The cabmen's shelter at Wellington Place was listed at Grade II and is the last of 13 surviving buildings to be given protected status.

The distinctive green huts offered a place for Victorian cabmen to rest and eat at a time when they were prohibited by law from leaving their horse-drawn carriages unattended.

Built by the Cabmen's Shelter Fund between 1875 and 1914, fewer than a quarter of the 61 constructed survive today- where they continue to serve modern-day taxi drivers.