Black cab ‘knowledge’ school saved from closing down

One of London’s most famous taxi schools has avoided closure despite struggling to pay the rent.

Knowledge Point on Caledonian Road, Islington was expected to go out of business last year as the school was set to be turned into luxury flats.

The training centre that has taught ‘the knowledge’ for more than 30 years had been fighting against rising rents that it could no longer afford.

The London Taxi Company came to an agreement to save the training centre by offering it learning space rent free just a few metres away at the LTC Brewery Road dealership.

Malcolm Linskey, the founder of the taxi school told the Guardian: “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.”

All London black-cab drivers have to gain a complete understanding about London streets. The cabbies have to learn the 25,000 roads within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross to pass the test and revise by plotting maps of the most direct routes through the capital.

Knowledge Point opened in 1983 and has seen 9,000 black cab drivers graduate in that time.

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