Cabmen's Shelter, Wellington Place

This cabmen’s shelter was built between 1914 and 1918, following a design inspired by Maximilian Clarke’s ornamental shelter of 1882 for the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund.

The shelter has an oak frame with deal cladding, painted 'Buckingham green', and a hipped roof covered in shingle tiles and lead sheet, with a lead-covered lantern. It is rectangular in plan, incorporating a galley kitchen and a communal mess area with benches against the walls.

The shelter is elevated on a platform and consists of seven framed bays with three bays at each end. The timber frame is visible, with vertical boarding panels between the posts and rails. An entrance door is on the south-east side, and a serving window is located at the south-west end. Square-headed windows with six panes, glazing bars, and pivoting hopper lights are evenly spaced along both sides; two flank the entrance door and a trio is on the opposite side, with the northern pair having been painted over. The south end features a central window matching those on the side elevations. Decorative fretwork panels featuring the ‘CSM’ monogram and ribboned garlands are set below the eaves between the window bays. The half-hipped roof has overhanging eaves showing exposed joists, with gablets containing decorative fretwork at the ends and sides. A square, louvered ventilation lantern, flanked by a pair of gablets in the centre of the ridge, is capped with a tented rooflet. Later replacement tethering poles are affixed to the shelter.

Inside, the fittings are largely modern, although the original layout of a galley kitchen, serving hatch, and a communal cabmen’s mess area remains. Replacement bench tops and seating are fitted in the cabmen’s mess area. A hatch leading to the ventilation lantern remains in the centre of a later suspended ceiling.