The Knowledge

A woman in my Chinese class told me about The Knowledge, which is what you must have if you want to become a licensed taxi cab driver in London.

You may be licensed either for the whole of London or for one or more of the 16 suburban sectors. The "All London" licence requires you to have a detailed knowledge of the 25,000 streets within a six mile radius of Charing Cross with a more general knowledge of the major arterial routes throughout the rest of London. If you wish to work as a taxi driver in central London or at Heathrow Airport you need an "All London" licence.

25,000 streets! Julie, who was telling me about this, said that the test might not be as rigorous anymore, since they all have GPS now. That's rather sad, since this is really impressive and makes taking a cab possibly worth the price. (Here's the official site.)