On 21/02/2021 09:47 am, JohnP wrote:

Don't know why it came into my head - but I recall at one time London Taxis
had an open luggage space on the nearside front.
Was this in response to a ruling - or what is a whim of a maker?

There is a legal requirement for a luggage space on the nearside, at the
front, opposite the driver.

There has never been a requirement for it to be open to the weather, and
as it happens, the last cab which had a luggage space open to the
elements was sold and licenced in 1959 in the form of the Austin FX3,
replaced that same year by the four-door FX4.

The luggage space is still there, of course, but for the last sixty two
years (or so), behind a door.

The boot doesn't have much luggage space at all - it's really only there
for the spare wheel and associated paraphernalia and any private
possessions of the driver.