Driver spends 8 years studying to become a London cabbie #shorts

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]At the Transport for London office, nervous aspiring cabbies dress up in their Sunday best to take a series of oral exams known as appearances.

[00:00:10]>> Whenever you're ready, sir. We'll go from Soho House, 40 Greek Street to the Chantry Rosewood, please.

[00:00:15]>> Candidates are quizzed on how to get between two random points.

[00:00:19]>> Living left Greek Street, right, Shaspbury Avenue, left Great Mill Street, forward Hay Market. As examiners measure the distance, ensuring they're calling the shortest route.

[00:00:31]>> Unfortunately, sir, I can't score you today.

[00:00:33]>> He failed this round. But for those who do pass the knowledge, this memorization has proven to be so challenging, it can change the structure of their brains. A study from University College London found cab drivers posterior hippocampi, the part of the brain linked to memory, got bigger throughout their careers.

[00:00:53]Everyone in their profession has had to train theirself with knowledge to be the best what they are and that's what we're doing.

[00:00:59]>> Steven Fairbrass has been trying to pass the knowledge for eight years. Anu Morjani for five. They showed us the official study guide known as the blue book. And >> these are like the points points of interest that any paying customer >> Uhhuh.

[00:01:15]>> would want you to take them to.

[00:01:17]>> I mean, there's thousands.

[00:01:18]>> Thousands of them.

[00:01:19]>> Yeah. 6,000 of them.

[00:01:20]>> I just got to look at this. The Last Judgment, PH, the Law Society Hall, the Londoner Hotel, the Marquee, the Mann Library, the National Gallery. I mean, this is crazy that you have to know all this. You have to learn individual restaurants, >> individual restaurants, >> public houses.

[00:01:33]>> What if a restaurant goes out of business?

[00:01:35]>> Then he changes names and then you learn a new name.

[00:01:37]>> Then it comes on the list.

[00:01:39]>> It comes on the list. It goes in the list.